City Council — March 12, 2026

public comments so this item is for any items not on the agenda at this time do you have any public comment this evening even for items not on the agenda?

We do have one comment from Mr. Noah Silvola.

Thank you very much, thank you for being here tonight.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Noah Silvola and I'm a resident of Buellton. One thing that Buellton desperately needs is a movie theater. Our great town hasn't had one since the Parks Plaza Theater shut down due to the pandemic in 2020 Parks Plaza is a great theater because it serves not just Buellton, but the entire San Yanez Valley. There's nothing like a cinema environment as it brings people together and is more entertaining than watching movies at home.

Without Parks Plaza, the closest movie theater is all the way in Wompoke. Since there are plans to build a medical center where Parks Plaza used to be, the new movie theater would have to be built somewhere else. I would suggest by Subway, a place where in the past there were plans to build a throwing alley With both the movie theater and Pea Soup Anderson's gone, it appears that Buellton is losing many of its attractions. There have also been new additions such as the Jersey Mikes and the Farmer's Market We need to do what we can to make our town better, and our town is incomplete without a movie theater. It may also be nice to have more family-oriented attractions here rather than only things that are intended for tourists, and this will be one of them.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you for coming tonight. Appreciate it.

No more public comments.

Perfect. All right. Moving right along, if we'll bring it now to consent calendar items one through six would any go ahead? Oh, I guess yeah you Yeah,

if you would like me to read them, I can't otherwise you

can say anything I didn't like to be pulled from this or is it we can look at for a motion for items one through six.

Move to approve.

Is there a second?

I'll second

≫ Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council. Item number 7 is Ordinance No. 26-03, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Buellton, California amending Chapter 3.28.060 of the Buellton Municipal Code pertaining to registration requirements of hotel operators subject to transient occupancy tax .290 of the Buellton Municipal Code pertaining to the operation of hotels for short-term rental only.

Tonight is agendized for the introduction first reading only. I won't go into this too much. The City Council has heard this item on a couple of occasions before. The intent of this item is the final step in probably at This ordinance is intended to remove a remaining obstacle to redevelopment of the revitalization, rather, of the avenue flags. This ordinance essentially requires the conversion of existing hotels with long-term residents to convert or revert back The state department of housing and community development wanted to review it again after having reviewed it through the certification of our housing element. They had done so and provided us some comments.

We revised the ordinance with regard to those comments, those comments particularly related After the conversion to short-term rental for existing residents who were on a housing authority waitlist or another affordable housing project waitlist before their units would need to revert to short term tenancy. We made the changes as requested by HCD and you'll find those in your packet this evening. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

One, in one case we have struck out the word may and included the word shall when discussing the extension being granted for those that are on the waitlist. So it is not a discretionary act, it's a ministerial act. It will be done if the waitlist documentation is provided. And then the second one specifically addresses the issue of replacement units having been provided The first thing I want to point out is that for the motels listed in the ordinance there, those were actually provided through the affordable housing agreement we have with I know we have some public

I would prefer public comment, please.

Okay so why don't we go ahead and do public comment at this time and then we can have staff questions or the council questions after that. So

okay we have two speaker slips um the first one is

oh i believe did you have a speaker oh yeah so we uh yes we could get that so we yeah perfect just making sure there's no other slips up there great

Okay, we have three speaker slips. The first one is Carey Moriarty.

Good evening I'm Carey Moriarty co-owner of the Farmhouse Apartments along with my partner Glenn Wilson seated over here I'm not here to try to change your minds. It's obvious the council favors this proposal. I don't know why, but it's obvious to me that you favor this. But I want you to think about the consequences. Here's how I see things if this proposal passes.

First, the city is in my opinion wasting a lot of time, And in fact, eliminates an existing community benefit which is 22 existing low-income housing a la the farmhouse apartments. Second, changing the use of the farmhouse back to a hotel or motel will do nothing to encourage redevelopment on the avenue. I don't get the calculus there. What's that going to do to inspire people to redevelop on the avenue by changing it to a motel? It's ridiculous.

If this were the case, then the other motels situated on the avenue would be making plans for redevelopment already. These motels continue to operate as motels with no expectation for redevelopment on the avenue. The proposal offers an unrealistic expectation and really is an exercise in futility. It's absolutely not gonna motivate anybody, would motivate me to redevelop but not gonna motivate any other motel redevelopment. Once again it's a baffling to me.

Third you'll be displacing 22 low-income individuals and families from their housing creating chaos in their lives think about that These people are most likely will not qualify for the new projects, affordable housing projects that have come out or online. To me this would be a real black eye for the city of Buellton from a public relations standpoint kicking out 22 people low-income people.

Fourth you're creating ill will with approved you're recreating ill will with the proven developer local developer me I own some nice properties on the, key properties on the Avenue of Flags and I feel like this is an insult to me in that I've been involved in the City of Buellton for over 15 years. Fifth you will be involving the city in an unnecessary lawsuit that will surely be filed if this proposal passes.

Sounds like a winning strategy What is especially baffling to me is the fact that the city is proposing to exempt the Red Rose Court from this proposal. I would think the city would appreciate my previous efforts with the development of the Vintage Walk project, which has been highly successful and is the only new ground-up development in the City of Buellton over the last 50 years.

I would think that the city would give some credit for this accomplishment and would offer to exempt my property over Red Rose Court. Would make sense to me. That's another head scratcher. Finally, it's obvious the specific plan that was approved in 2017 for the Avenue of Flags has been an absolute failure. As no redevelopment has occurred in almost 10 years from adoption of that plan.

I strongly encourage the city to get more creative and more supportive in promoting redevelopment efforts. You need to make it more attractive for developers like myself, outside developers, to come in and redevelop and propose new projects on the avenue. Otherwise you end up another 10 years without anything being done on the avenue. Thank you.

Next, we have Matt Carlson.

Good evening mayor, council members. My firm represents the owners of the Farmhouse Motel, the 20 single room occupancy units that have housed 20 lower income Buellton residents for a decade or more. Let's be clear about the decision before you this ordinance would force the conversion of long-term affordable units into potential motel rooms designed to serve wine tasting weekenders from Los Angeles. This is gentrification by policy Most troubling, the city makes no commitment to the people the ordinance would displace. The ordinance offers no guarantee of relocation assistance these individuals, no guarantee of affordable housing for the current residents. Instead, the ordinance suggests that these tenants may be absorbed into recently developed affordable projects but our tenants and our client are responsible for making that happen.

The city offers no commitments on those respects. If the affordable units aren't ready or tenants can't qualify, the ordinance evicts those tenants in 180 days. This is not protection of tenants and units in your housing element described as a valuable form of lower income housing. It's imposing uncertainty and the burdens on vulnerable residents and a longtime property owner who has done his part to provide much needed affordable housing.

Even in the world where the stars align and all of these tenants find housing, the ordinance turns the city's new affordable housing projects into mere backfill replacing units lost by this ordinance. You don't fix a housing shortage by shuffling lower income residents from unit to unit. That's rearranging chairs, it's not adding seats. You've received multiple legal letters detailing these deficiencies and the risks they create, yet your approach continues. Staff shared last-minute edits to the ordinance designed to correct flaws that still fail to address these fundamental concerns.

If you pass the ordinance as is, you force low-income residents to pay for your Avenue of the Flags vision as a place for wealthy out-of-town visitors. You choose potential tax revenues over vulnerable community members. You can choose differently and direct staff to amend the ordinance to a minimum fund relocation assistance, guarantee placement into those affordable units and bar any displacement until the city relocates residents.

Vote with your conscience here. Protect your residents Thank you very much. And now we have Mary Andy Gould.

I'll tell you who lives there, okay? We got two families, Hispanic families with three kids each. Maybe undocumented maybe not but they're workers here. Got one old guy in a wheelchair who says he's too old to move and he's been there 15 years he says. Me, I can find another place that's not a problem but It's just kind of a weird thing that, you know when the solution that they propose is that people helping people get on a wait list for these places behind Albertsons and the whole county is applying for that. So the chances that these people living there are gonna get in on that is kinda slim It's a lot of fun. And you have to be low income, which I'm really not so but I just like the place it's funky it's kind of cool.

It's the only thing. I mean even though you know I've saved her retirement I really don't want to spend it all like 2500 a month and I guess the real thing is affordable housing is such a problem that why, I mean, it's a town like really trying to get ritzy or something. I don't know because it was always a lot of car lots that I drove by and Lompoc has a lot of these motels. If this is something that's going to spread to all these places, mostly this area is either really rich or really poor.

And just seems kind of sad that I don't even know why you would do this, but. I guess it's just, you know, politics or redevelopment of what? This seems crazy to me. But anyway.

Thank you very much.

No more public

comments.

OK, we have no further public comment at this time. We'll bring it now back to council or the council for any questions of staff. Would like to start Council Member Sanchez, would you like to start? No questions. Council Member Lewis, do you have any questions? Vice Mayor Lewis or Vice Mayor Mead, do you have any questions?

Not at this time thank you

Okay, I had a few. I just wanted to check and make sure. I wanted to make sure in understanding this, in terms of referencing public comment that was brought up and what's listed here, we've heard the farmhouse apartments versus the farmhouse motel. And I just wanted to confirm which... What's the proper title that we're discussing here at this time?

I don't think title is necessarily an important concept here. The important concept was that it was developed as a motel when the city incorporated it as a motel, even when the current owner acquired it, it was a motel and it's a hotel. Even if that had not been the case, if it was developed as a motel under this ordinance, it would need to be reverted back to the motel.

It's still under file with The next one I have is just to confirm some of the timelines that we have. Is that at this point, the way the ordinance is written with the CEDC question, not CED, no. Pick the acronyms out there. Just wanted to check. So the concept with that is that currently if adopted by the second reading it would be six months or could you walk me through the timeline?

If the ordinance is adopted, or if the ordinance is introduced tonight then at the next meeting likely two weeks from now it would come forward for second reading. If it's adopted at second reading then it would come into effect 30 days after that. Within six months of the effective date of the ordinance the motel units would need to be reverted back to short-term residency If residents within those units are able to get on a list that the Area Housing Authority, pardon me, has a waitlist program and they can go and They have to put themselves on that list. They do have to income qualify for that, but if they are income qualified and on that list, then documentation will be provided to them that they're on that list and they can bring that documentation to the city and the city will grant under the change provision of the ordinance 180 days or 18 months more so From the effective date of the ordinance before that, for the short term reversion for those units would need to take place.

Okay, so easier for me just so if we let's say we go through with the two adoption. We read read we adopt that would mean it takes effect of May 1st,

right? Yes.

And then it'd be six months from that. So that's may June July August September and October November 1st. And then from there it would be an additional 18 months

correct

okay just wanted to make sure I understood that timeline that's going on for them And then the only other question I had is that we've brought online, I believe 189 units of affordable housing are working through that. That's correct. OK. And how many units were built in the Polo Village project? That was could you walk through the

there were forty nine affordable units built in the in the Polo Village project. The I don't know what other questions you have. The two that are not fully occupied yet which are the village senior It's

not that you have to be on a list for a local project, it's just within the county waitlist. Seeing no further questions or do you have a

question? You said, what is the title of it? It's Farmhouse Motel. Is that right? As far as I've never known it's in Farmhouse

Motel? I'm not aware of what I believe the sign says farmhouse. I don't know if it clarifies motel or apartments. Does

it say on the sign? I don't know the exact dates. We have found documentation that

The current owner took possession of it and filed transient occupancy tax documents with the city after acquisition of the property. So at that point, we're assuming based upon that documentation that it was a motel at that

point. So when was the last time we collected? We have

no idea. Long before I came here it had been converted.

I heard a figure of 15 years or something. But you say it's been

converted, you mean informally converted not converted? Informal means correct. Just clarifying.

So it was illegally converted. That's correct. That was that's uh I think that's the point and it's not it says motel on it thank you

all right No further questions. So bring it back for any comments, discussions and then look to see if there's a movement or emotion that would like be taken but any comments you'd like to add?

Yeah I think part of the decision making process for me is less about Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the public. I think it's important to make sure that we have standards for long-term residency that don't meet the requirements for long-term residency. That aren't following the same regulations and safety standards and occupancy standards for long-term residency. So, that is more where my decision making is coming from rather than actual redevelopment. Yeah, that would be great but looking at the human factor of things

One of the comments was asking if we were not helping with these people move, but we've been doing everything we can to find a place for them. And I think we've been over backwards going extending time to find a place for the people who live

and

that's all.

≫ Thank you. Any comments?

I don't love this idea. At the same time, I'm very hopeful that by providing two years of support that these people will get on with this and hopefully move to a place that's meant to be a home not a hotel room or motel room which is exactly what they're supposed to be. And to Councilmember Sanchez's point as well, I know that there has been door knocking efforts. I know they have been e-mail blasts. I know people have been providing personal outreach to people who have lived on Avenue of the Flags in these SROs to get them informed so they have the option of learning about the wait lists and where It's I know that this is a difficult decision faced before council but considering all of those things, like I think those are very valid points all the way across the board.

Thank you. I'll just kind of wrap things up here a bit of just somewhat like I think it was in January, I went and I door knocked all the houses or the residencies I could I met via some of the gentlemen I met the gentleman who is in an ADA unit there and brought forth the information of here's the application. Here are the resources what can we do with you? ≫ Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the public. I want to start personally with everyone who opened the door saying what can we do to help ensure you have all the information available for this relocation? And it was unfortunate to find out that communication hadn't been shared before. We took this discussion in July of 2025 and we're having this discussion in March of 2026.

I'm happy to continue to do so. I wish that there was more commitment as a community from everyone involved, all parties involved, to help in the relocation efforts and we're gonna continue to do that but we have to just do it ourselves. So we will work with PHP and other organizations for it. We had relocation efforts taking place in February of 2024 to try and help people relocate as well. So many efforts are being taken place right now personally as well to ensure that as many people can be relocated We will have a benefits fair that we're going to talk about on April 8th. Please, if you are in need of assistance, please come to that so that you have the opportunity to sign up. We'll have resources there to assist you in the relocation of that so that you can get on these lists.

With all that in mind, we're talking about a 34-month timeline for implementation that we're looking at. Eight months between when we first brought this up till now, eight months between adoption if it moves forward with it until October and then you could get an additional 18 months if you're on a list In that time frame, I've seen people relocate out of that area and into housing that is set appropriately for it. We have families who have relocated into properties and we need to keep working with them to ensure we provide that. I feel like this is the city doing its due diligence to bring things into compliance, into code, and to follow what's the rule of law with as much compassion as possible And I think in knowing that the state has certified this and given their feedback, it was part of our housing element.

And they provided additional feedback. We're doing our due diligence to make sure that we're following with the state protocols as well. So I feel like Buellton is doing everything it can to ensure that we're bringing our buildings into code and compliance, as well as having a compassionate element of the human impact for that. So I think us as a council and us as a staff have to continue to hopefully even if residents are not receiving this information from the current owners, we have to then find ways to bring that information to them so they feel empowered to find resources for proper housing. So that's where I stand on it. And I think that I'll pause there and see if anyone would like to make a motion at this time?

I move to approve. second.

For the record, part of this is we have to read the title of the ordinance and then you're waiving further reading. Do

you want me to read it all?

No I'll do it. So this is ordinance number 26-03 an ordinance of the City Council of the city of Buellton California amending chapter 3.28.060 of the Buellton Municipal Code pertaining to registration requirements of hotel operators subject to transient occupancy tax and adding chapter 19.06.290 of the Buellton Municipal Code pertaining to the operation of hotels for short-term rental use only, 25 ZOA 01.

Given the first reading by the Council tonight this will come back at a future meeting for approval and will likely be on consent calendar. Thank you.

Thank you very

much. We will move along if we can Thank you.

I just wanted everybody to come to the Wine and Chili Festival on Sunday. It's going to be a Monday, putting a lot of work into it and also looking forward to the market, the farmer's market on Monday. I've heard a lot of feedback on it and that'll be something they will enjoy. That's it. Thank you.

Well, John stole my comment. But I'm very excited about farmers market. I've heard nothing but positive and excitement from people not just Buellton residents, but all the residents. So I'm very excited. I think it'll be a smashing success.

So I have two things. First, I want to say thank you to our public works department for installing the communication boards and all of the parks around. And I wanted to thank Shannon Sudeiky and Shea McDonald for their support in developing those. The new ones actually have Spanish translations on them which is great for more inclusion and more diversity and I think that they're a really great addition to our community.

And more of a businessy note, I'd like to ask Council to consider agendizing a letter of support for a bill that's come to my attention. So this bill is called AB 1708. It's actually sponsored by the California League of Cities and what this bill does is essentially it requires that That the regional continuum of care open a 30 day application window specifically for cities under a population of 300,000. So we have access to the hat funding program and so essentially right now the way that this grant works is that big cities apply. I spoke with Caroline grinder from the California league of cities and essentially verified with her that the council can decide to use it.

I'm in support of it.

Okay, thank you. I apologize. Neglected to say went to the friends of the library reception on Sunday. They have some local artists there and 4 different artists brought their artwork and it's going to be on display at the friends of the library throughout the month And I would encourage any citizen and staff or anybody to try to get over there to check it out. They had a nice presentation, the artist talked about their work and I just wanted to thank Holly for all the hard work she's putting in over there and it was a good time over there.

So I'd like everybody to try to get over there to appreciate the artwork. Thank

you.

And thank you for bringing that item up too as well. Sure

absolutely.

Any

other? Anything to get people to more funding.

≫ So just a few items I wanted to thank. Thank you for public comment tonight about the movie theater and I appreciate you bringing that forth to us, something that I know has come up many times so I think I received your email as well and that will be shared with Kathy Vreeland who is our best person to figure out what economically is viable for it but there's also appetite I wanted to make everyone aware April 8th is going to be our benefits fair that's taking place. It will be at Oak Valley Elementary from 3 to 7 p.m. We're working to bring as many organizations as we can to the space. We're working with SenCal Health, it's primarily housing and medical so SenCal Health, Esparco, PHP, Sands Valley Community Outreach will be there, SYD Humane will be there to provide free pet microchipping so thank you to that I just want to bring up for adoption, We actually are kind of leading the way with a lot of things going on.

And so there has been an organization who is actually looking to see about having a dark sky, we International Dark Sky Week proclamation that come on just acknowledge like the support of dark skies. I just wanted to see if there was council consensus to allow us to add that That is that. And I think that's everything at this time for me so we can move on now to written communications.

None this evening. All right, we'll move on to committee reports any The only one I want to report is that we did have an SB CAG, thank you for coming tonight. An SB CAG North County Sub-Regional Committee get all the words in that available course and they are doing two items that are coming up one is there's a big move as the 101 continues to get closer to completion with a date of 2028 they're really looking to now work on the corridor between at least the 166 between Santa Maria and Guadalupe And so there's a lot of activity going on there and that's kind of where the next study is going on.

And so we'll see a bit more movement as North County projects start to become in the queue for that. I know that the 246 at the west, no, the east side of the 246 across from Hitchincoast and Dale property is also still on that list of things to be brought forth. We're seeing North County projects starting to be able to be scheduled now that one-on-one is completed. And then the other one is that we did have a discussion about having a North County transit study take place, so they're going to bring back some ideas for that about right now we have Santa Maria Transit, we have Lompoc Transit and then we have the St. Louis Valley Transit which is solving is the seat for that and we provide our funding to Solving to run the St Louis Valley Transit it was and then there's the This was a chance for SB CAG to take a look at a holistic view of North County, how can we maybe coordinate that a little bit better?

Is it something that are the time sync barriers. Instead of having four different transit units working you have them talk to each other and be more informed so there will be studies going on and opportunities ≫ Thank you. All right, moving along to business item week. Business item number 8. ≪

Thank you Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council. Business item number 8 is an item to consider to enter into a contract with Cosmo companies for the preparation

≫ Good evening, members of City Council. At the November 13th city council meeting an augmented scope of work and approval of consultant contracts was approved for several supplementary work efforts associated with the general plan update. At that time those augmentations at the time of those augmentation staff indicated there would likely be a future need to bring back additional For the past decade or more, the city has budgeted $20,000 per fiscal year for Cosmont companies for general economic development services. The budget covers a broad range of work efforts related to economic development within the city.

In order to formalize this standard budget line item and to capture the additional work effort specifically related to the general plan update, the city's Economic Development Consultant, Cosmont Companies, has submitted a proposed work plan and budget which is attached to the staff report ≫ Good evening, everyone. My name is Sarah Buellton and I will be your moderator for the City Council's consideration this evening. The proposal includes two overall tasks so the first would be the preparation of the economic development element of the general plan for a total budgeted amount In addition to what they typically would work on on an annual basis, so that would be again the preparation of the economic development element of our general plan.

This would involve them working with city staff and the general plan consultant team to draft the element for work on providing policies and implementation tools related to economic development and the general plan

Thank you very much. Any questions for staff at this time?

I'm looking at the hourly rates on here. Who do you work with in this?

The people you work with? I'm going to turn it back over to you. ≫ Thank you so much for having me. We have a couple of questions on the senior project analyst or president level. Their names are Joe Diegas and Ken Hira but they're typically at that level. Oftentimes if we have projects that require extensive research, they might ask some of the staff

But it's within the budget that we've maintained and within the 30,000 you're asking. Correct. And

yeah they I've talked to them about that they said yeah you know we were not going to go we're not going over it well you know we always budget we always are able to stay under so that's that's the idea.

We've been under budget with them.

I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I think currently this fiscal year the reason I mentioned we have an adequate budget is because I think we're at $2,000 or $3,000 in the fiscal year they've expended but with the general plan update we do anticipate that we'll expend much of those

Yes, I was just wondering if you could I was just reading about a little bit about the background and I know that you've worked with this company like almost maybe about 10 years maybe a little bit over. And one of the things that they've talked about is that they've developed this dor incentive program. And I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about like that because it obviously seems like it was I wanted to ask about that a little bit and how did this company help us develop that as a city?

And one of the key components that came out of that was the DOR program, so Development Opportunity Reserve. It's coined by them, Cosmont Companies. But basically I guess the simplest way to describe that is quid quo pro type of an arrangement. So we have these nice amazing medians, roadways and sidewalks on the avenue and then we have the private property owners The idea was to basically allow some relaxation of the avenue of flag specific plan standards in return for some sort of public benefit given to the city from these developers.

They could either pay some sort of a fee to the city that would be put into a pot of money for future improvements on the avenue or they could actually build an improvement How do we work in this public-private partnership to actually work together, you know, as a city and with the private development community to create a downtown which is the goal of the specific plan. So Cosmont companies basically developed the mechanism and they were sort of the economic mind behind that strategy which is contained in our specific plan so...

I just have one more question and I'm not sure if to direct it to you or Chanel. So, the $25,000 needs to be a budget amendment because it would be a new expenditure because it's task 1 right? Correct. And then will we be revisiting that in 2026-2027 More than likely.

So basically what I'm suggesting is that we expend what we expend this current fiscal year and any unused funds get rolled over into the next fiscal year, so whatever's left over

from this year. Yeah okay. Okay so there wouldn't... but like if you happen to spend it all this year Like, do you want to come back and ask for more

in 2020? I don't think that is the idea. I've talked with Cosmont and they said that amount should cover it. And they also said we are flexible also right so if for some reason they need to, they're like we're at $27,000 they can dip into the general economic development budget. So

this $25,000 is actually like almost for this fiscal year and next year. Basically the timeline of the general plan update. Okay great okay thank you for explaining that I appreciate it. I just wanted to double check though how long it's gonna last basically thank you very much.

And good evening I just want to say we're here virtually and agreed with everything Andrea covered and thank you for the opportunity.

This is Joe Diegas the vice president for COSMOTE.

Hello.

Hi Joe.

Good evening, sorry to interrupt just wanted to let you know I was here for

questions.

We didn't see you there so we'll see if we can find you now and before moving forward with any question I guess I'll pause did you want to add anything? Was there anything that you wanted to add to this Mr. Villegas? And now we can oh we can see your background

Yeah, sorry. No thank you to city manager and Andrea for the presentation. I just wanted to say yeah so it's been a personal privilege working in Buellton. It was 2013 when we started and so much positive change in our opinions happy to play some role on that. And just thanks for the opportunity to even consider the agreement and I just wanted to confirm all that was discussed about plans to stay within budget and absolutely true I'm happy to be here and just happy to be working with you all

again.

Thank

you. Is there any public comment on this item?

Do not have any public comments.

Great, so we'll bring it back to Council for any further comments and then a possible motion. Any comments, Council Member Liz? No. Any comments, Council Member Sanchez? No, thank you.

≫ Thank you.

All right, Mr. Mayor. Members of the City Council, item 9 is resolution number 26-03, a resolution of the City Council of the city of Buellton California adopting updated personnel rules and policies for city employees. Our staff contact on this is our City Clerk and Human Resources Director Linda Reed

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. The city's current personnel rules and policies were last amended in 2018 long before COVID seems like a million years ago and are overdue and need an update. New state law and federal laws have been added to the rules and policies as outlined in the red line attachments that you've received Attachment one are the revised personnel roles. So in addition to new laws that are reflected throughout the rules, there are several additions to the roles that staff feels are relevant in order to stay competitive with neighboring cities and to aid in attracting and retaining valuable employees.