City Council — March 26, 2026

All

right if we could please have roll call

tonight? No reordering of the agenda this evening Mr. Mayor but I will note that our closed session item, Item Number 15 will be postponed to a future date.

Okay And then tonight we do have a presentation for the evening. So we have some special guests in the audience tonight, so we'll move on to our proclamation recognizing National Vietnam War Veterans Day March 29th 2026. So I'll go ahead and read the proclamation and then we'll go ahead and have our speakers come up if you'd like to say any items at this point and then please do not leave because we do want to take a photo with you all as well. So i hope your camera ready as well oh everyone gets to come up for the photo Proclamation recognizing National Vietnam War Veterans Day March 29th, 2026.

Whereas the Vietnam War was a long costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. And whereas for almost two decades during the conflict Americans raised their right hands and committed to serve and defend our Constitution as uniformed members of the United States Armed Forces during a time when opposition to the Vietnam war created a bitter division among Americans. And whereas throughout the years of the Vietnam War, more than 3 million people were killed including over 58,000 Americans while 9 million Americans returned home with the title of United States veteran. At the time of their return many of these veterans were not welcomed home or thanked for their service due to opposition to the war That's why today and every day we honor their bravery and commitment, and give thanks to a generation of Americans who valiantly fought in service of their country.

And whereas the City of Buellton honors all those who served in the Vietnam War, and recognize the continued impact that conflict has on so many veterans and their families, caregivers, and survivors. And now, therefore I Mayor David Silva do hereby recognize March 29th 2026 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day in the city of Buellton and commemorate the hardships and sacrifices of those who served and their families who supported them before during and after the war. Presented this 26th day of March 2026.

And I know we usually clap for the sake of the proclamation but I do want to just have a moment saying thank you both for having two gentlemen who served here today. We really appreciate you being here and thank you for all of your service so if we could actually just give a round of applause to these two gentlemen ≫ Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for joining us today. I would like to

introduce

our first speaker. Would

any of you like

to speak?

You're the opening act. ≪ Council members, thank you When we started five years ago, they were doing this appreciation in Washington but no one was doing it in Santa Barbara County. So the city of Buellton let us bring this and bring it back and start honoring our Vietnam vets. It's just grown. The first year there was about 50 people and last year there were 350 vets, and we were able to honor their spouses as well. This year we've expanded it a little to also the Vietnam Korean War and also the war on terrorism for Iraqi Afghanistan Gulf Wars.

We just like to honor all of our vets let's face it like they are just so important to us This one is really important to me. He had my heart. He was a football coach and a government teacher at the high school. There were six boys in his government class that all, he's a Marine, they all joined the Marine Corps. My son was one of them. He was being shipped to Iraq.

I was a wreck. Coach Smith called me, asked me if I could meet him at the football field. Little odd but you never say no to Coach Smith so I said sure He gave me one of his medals and said, tell our boy to bring it back. That was really something that a mama needed to have right then and I wanted him to bring it back too. So he's really close my heart and the Vietnam guys we will be celebrating for as long as they'll let us do it. Thank you City of Buellton thank you for giving them this honor and thank you for recognizing Coach Smith Sorry, Dave Smith.

So it seems like just a couple of days ago that I went in but it's been 60 years before since I went to the Marine Corps right after I graduated from high school. I was lucky I went into 17. As I tell people, I went into two so I kind of flipped my age a little bit. But I was kind of lucky when I got out of boot camp and in infantry school, I trained as an infantryman. And I was the only one that didn't go straight to Vietnam in the fall of 66 because I was still 17.

So I did about a year in the States and then said, well back then there was only three kinds of Marines. Those that had been to Vietnam, those that were there and those that were going to go. So I figured might as well get it over with so I along with a lot of other guys stationed back North Carolina we all volunteered for a replacement group and went to Vietnam.

I was lucky I made my whole 13 month tour spending a little bit in the hospital with malaria But other than that, I was lucky. I had lost lots of friends and some that we live with the Vietnam vets we live with every day. The other thing is when were you last in Vietnam? And the answer is last night. So now we appreciate all the recognition because when we came home it wasn't as for myself, it wasn't as bad as a lot of people say But it was just that people ignored you. They just didn't care.

My buddies from high school that I saw said, where have you been? And then I said, Vietnam. Said oh well, did they give you free beer? And that's all they cared about. I was still under 21 and that's all they cared about civilians but so we appreciate all the things that people do for us now and I think a lot of Vietnam vets, they've done things since then that so young soldiers, Marines, sailors don't get treated the way we did. So it's a thing close to our heart that you recognize all those. You may not agree with what went on but you can't blame the guys that were there doing it.

They were just following and I hate to have sound but following orders. But it was also, we went off and thought it was an adventure until the first day. And then you find out it's not an adventure. It's life and death. So but thank you very much. And hopefully y'all come over Saturday and have a good time. Thanks. Thank you very much.

First of all I'd like to say thank you Mayor Silva and the entire council this is a rare Super honor and treat to receive the proclamation. My story is actually pretty similar to Coach Smith's. I'm newer here in the valley, moved up here in 2014. Before that I lived in Orange County. I joined Marine Corps right out of high school About 10 months after joining the Marine Corps, I was shipped off to Vietnam.

I served with Lima Company 3rd Battalion 7th Marines. It's an infantry outfit but my particular role much like Coach Smith's we directed artillery strikes. We were what they referred to as forward observers. Coming back to the States, there were no parades. There were no congratulations. The only people who are truly happy to see me back where my parents and my brothers.

I come from a long line of Marines, uncles, grandfather. And it just seemed like the thing to do for me. But what it really did was open my eyes to the need of a good education. So upon returning, I went to college, I went to grad school, I went to law school. I've spent over 40 years practicing law. I was a deputy district attorney in Orange County for four years and I hope that you all can make it to the ceremony on Saturday and we're looking forward to a big crowd. And again, thank you very much for this honor. Before

we do any photos, did you want to say something Council Member Sanchez?

Again, I'd like to thank you for your service. I went to Washington D.C., and then I went to the memorial there, and it was just gave me chills. And I would say lucky enough, I had a friend that had three people that were on the wall. So I went down, and they give you a little piece of paper, and you scratch their name across, and I brought back the names off the wall. But it was an honor.

Being from a military family, I was born on an Air Force base. And I appreciate all your services. You're a man of great support and value to have in the party for you too. Thank you.

Yes, gentlemen. Thank you so much for your service and Pam thank you for all your hard work that you've done to make sure that the veterans of not just the Vietnam War but other wars and conflicts are being recognized my father's a Vietnam vet. So this hits particularly personally for me. So I just want to say thank you too. Thank you again for your service and the sacrifice that you and your families made.

And I'm so glad that we can offer this small token of our appreciation. It's long overdue, and I'm happy that finally, you know, we are starting to really recognize all of you for all the things that you've done for our country and for all of us. So thank you again.

As someone who attended, I went to the Walter H. Capps religion in Vietnam class that was offered at UCSB and I remember when the veterans came and educated and shared their stories. I just want to thank you. To be willing to be visible and to share your story and to pass that along is something that takes an extra step of courage beyond already what you had done with your service to it so I really appreciate gentlemen being willing to talk and share what you have gone through. And the realities of war, it really impacted me at that age and for all the college kids who took that class. So when you have Vietnam veterans willing to engage with a community that had not the greatest story of connection when you came back to it we just really appreciate all you've done to continue to keep those experiences alive and those lessons learned for future generations.

So thank you gentlemen for being here tonight.

Thank you. From a military family as well so it hits close to home.

If you'd like, can we do a photo? All right. Let's do a photo. Pam, you got to be part of it too.

Okay, 1-2-3. All right. Thank you, sir. We're so busy. Have a great Thursday, we'll see you on Saturday.

We'll make sure we announce it again,

too. Lieutenant Henderson is not with

us. Okay so without having Lieutenant Henderson tonight we will now

Hello Mr. Mayor, members of council and before we do this I'd like to also say thank you for that proclamation as a daughter of a disabled Vietnam vet who passed from his exposure to Agent Orange that is a meaningful proclamation for families as well who watched those men live a war fight a war again in their bodies when they came home so thank you for honoring that I'm here tonight on a happier note.

Sorry, about to collect myself. The Arts and Culture Committee we are putting on a production of Annie that was so generously funded by this council and I just wanted to give you a little bit of an update. We had close to 200 people come in audition. So we had a really exciting turnout. I think it shows that there is an interest in the arts in the Valley and we hope to bring more of that programming to Buellton in the future. And we are almost sold out. So if you haven't gotten your tickets Please do.

We have our actors coming in soon to do free workshops, those are also sold out and our actors have really generously also decided to do Zoom lessons for people that were not able to make that cut off so they are donating an extra three days of their time of sessions to do that. So it's been a really exciting partnership and we're grateful to you all for making that happen We wanted to bring up our Annie who is Miss Lily Wolfe and she was hoping that she could just brighten your day with a little taste of the sun will come out tomorrow.

The sun will come out tomorrow. Tomorrow, the sun just thinking about clouds and the sun That's. Stick up. Yeah.

Get to your mom, but you have to hold the flowers. All

right, let me see if we can

get a photo with you. Thank you so much.

I'm

sorry, Allison. Could

you put in the microphone? Can you say in the microphone the dates of the performance?

Yes sir it is April 17th and 18th at Solvang Theater Fest and tickets can be ordered at solvangtheaterfest.org. I think we only have about 20 tickets left for both nights so... Thank you very much.

It's

either a star is born or a diva is born tonight. Well thank you very much okay it's hard to follow up on that honestly that's like where do we go from here so we will now move on to public comment at this time, do we have any public comment for any non-agendized items? Okay, we will now move on to the consent calendar for items 4 through 10. Would any council members like to pull any items at this time from items four through ten?

I would personally like to pull item ten if that's possible so that we can have an update on that for a few questions. So is it possible with pulling item ten if we could have anyone to make a motion for items four through nine?

I move to approve.

I'll second.

Thank you very much. So we have item 10

Yes, at about 420 this afternoon we did receive an email from HCD. Their email indicated that at the direction of their senior management they were letting us know that the changes that the City Council had made to the agenda at the last meeting were accepted and they have no further comments at this time

the agenda sorry I'm sorry you said the changes to the agenda oh I'm sorry changes to the ordinance okay sorry no problem okay thank you just want to see thank you for sharing that that was an update all right does anyone else have any questions for staff at this time

no

okay so we have a public comment on the item number 10

okay mr. Carlson Good evening Mayor, City Council Members. Just wanted to touch on a few quick items here. One you have a letter from our office in the record with respect to this ordinance that I hope you all read because it corrects some of your misstatements made by the council at the last meeting I would also like to emphasize again, in response to the question from the Mayor that it's important to note that the Department of Housing and Community Development interpretations do not resolve the ordinance as legal faults.

Statutory violations cannot be cured by HCD approval. And then finally, I would just note that your Council still has the opportunity here to do right by these tenants and make firm commitments in the ordinance itself or through actual policies as part of its ordinance adoption. And I would encourage you to do so, thank you.

Thank you very much. Do we have any further public comment on the item?

No further comments.

Okay any questions or comments from staff at this time or from council at this time? Okay is there a motion or would anyone like to make a motion on this item?

I would move to approve ordinance number 2603, 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 1019-6-290 of the Buellton Municipal Code pertaining to the operation of hotels for short term rental use only second reading

Okay, is there a second? I'll go ahead and

And Vice-Mayor Mead. Aye

Okay thank you very much are there any public hearings tonight no public hearings okay oh yes we need to get Thank you for joining us. ≫ Thank you. ≪ . Councilmember Hornick.

Stuff anyway, this is a this is a group of people value wide that every Saturday. At 8 from 8 to 9, they pick a spot in the valley and they go out with bags and they pick up trash for my everybody gets a mile. And they have done this for years. It's pretty great. They have a coordination with. The county has agreed to pick up the trash at a set point and then just dispose of it. So they literally just keep the valley clean So I'm going to go ahead and get started.

I thought it was something that perhaps the city could consider as well. And they don't hit the city of Buellton But the whole idea there, as one of the co-captains says is clean your stoop, be responsible for your area and immediate shoulders. If maybe the city would consider something like the county does is coordinating a pickup. So if we were able to distribute in some kind of way some colored trash bags and people in the City of Buellton could actually go and pick up trash, people might be so inclined to do so.

It's just something I wanted to float to the City Council to see if maybe we could discuss facilitating help in that regard. I don't know if we should maybe ask for City Council concurrence on that or, I don't know, there needs to be a staff item to come back to? Maybe it is something staff might look into the feasibility for?

It's something we can look into if the council would like to discuss it again we should have direction

I know it definitely had been in conversation with the Rotary Club. We talked about 2 of how they might be a really good advocate partner too, so maybe it'd be a worthwhile thing to kind of see what are all ways between SPCAG, rotary and other options? What are our ways that we could pull this together? So I'd be happy to explore it further if there's room for us to do so.

Perfect yeah, they mentioned rotary as well and I know there's probably like them and then rotary makes at least two organizations out coordination might be helpful but also getting the word out would be good.

≫ Thank

you. ≪ ≢ Okay. Councilmember vice mayor Mead?

≃ That's great thank you. ≫

Okay, sounds good. For me the only items I wanted to bring up is thank you to everyone who came out to the wine and chili festival and there was a lot of oh sorry Vice Mayor Mead.

At 9 a.m., and they're meeting in front of pea soup Anderson's so kind of just part of that whole conversation, and I also just wanted to thank city manager Scott wolf in our recreation director Paul for meeting with 2 of the men from the triumph organization. They're looking at bringing some adaptive sports programs here to Buellton, and they're really excited about the opportunity to partner with us. Unfortunately I was not able to be there so I really just appreciate Scott and Paul taking that on for me and learning a bit more about those programs. And then I guess the other last thing is obviously I believe the Easter egg hunt is coming up, so that's going to be very exciting. So that's going to be this Saturday as well at Riverview Park and I believe that starts at 9 30.

So just some community doings that I wanted to make sure that people were aware of. Thank you.

I was just going to say thanks everyone who came to the wine and chili festival. It was delicious and the heartburn was well worth it, so I appreciate that we had a decent number of Buellton businesses that were able to take home some prizes on their awards for that. And then the farmer's market, just want to say again to everyone who made that happen and for all those who are doing outreach, I know it's kind of a...I appreciate city staff has been very responsive to some of the concerns for the avenue businesses in working through that as we ≫ Thank you, Mr. Buellton. I just wanted to share is that if Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Moving on to committee reports. I'm sorry, any written communications at this time? None this evening. Now to committee reports.

Councilmember Sanchez, any committee reports?

I did a CCWA meeting this morning and it was pretty interesting. We have ≫ Thank you. ≪ ≻

Councilmember

Hornick?

≤ Yes, I just wanted to let everyone know that I was at the California League of Cities. I had a community services policy committee in Costa Mesa which is why I'm not able to attend in person and I think they Our assemblymen and our representatives are going to be debating throughout the month of April. So if that is something that you're particularly interested in, there's 1800 for you to go through and look at personally. The community services policy committee was really focused on 4 particular bills and a lot of them focus on child care.

And housing and funding essentially for different types of programs to help those that are unhoused, foster youth and just people going through transitional times. But childcare was actually the bulk of the conversation so I just wanted to let everyone know that is what we were doing today.

Thank you very much. So we had a few meetings, so I wanted to thank also City Manager Scott Wolf for his attendance on... A couple weeks ago we had a city leader summit here in the city of Buellton where it's the mayors and some of the county supervisors come together and just kind of share what's taking place within the area, and they did it here in the Buellton Library. So thank you again for getting that together. And then right after that, we attended the St. Louis Valley Economic Summit I want to say it was really fun to be in solving and have Buellton beat the bell of the ball with all the great work we're doing. It's a testament to how much work this staff has done so thank you for setting us up for success It's a great opportunity with so much of the central coast being in a space of leadership.

There is the central coast coalition which is pretty much San Benito County down to us that works together to bring these more small rural mid-counties We were there in Sacramento advocating on behalf of the entire Central Coast. It's a lot easier when you have four counties joined together to ask for the same things, kind of catch people's attention a bit more. And then the reason why I cannot keep track of the agenda tonight is that I was in D.C. The last two days and flew home this morning.

I want to start by saying thank you to all of the members of the council. ≫ Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the public. We are trying to make sure that as much advocacy as we can to have the department of transportation release the grant funding for 1.4 million for the river trail. It's good to remind them that we would like the check to clear at some point so it was a good conversation to talk with them about various ≫ Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, at your last meeting on March 12th, city council directed staff to return with an agenda item for the city council to consider taking an official city position on Assembly Bill 1708. Assembly Bill 1708 would require that our county's community of care allocate homeless Let me get this straight. Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Funds, HHAP, you'll hear that a lot. No one ever wants to spell it out like this though, to smaller jurisdictions under this piece of legislation smaller jurisdictions would be any jurisdiction under 300,000 in population so we're well below that the problem that's been seen up to now is the state has allocated millions upon millions of dollars to housing I'm going to start by saying that the city of Buellton The California cities is a sponsor of this bill and is asking cities to voice their opinion to the legislature in support of its passage.

I can tell you that at this time we do not have any We have identified need for acquiring these funds from the legislature. However, if at some point in the future a need does arise without this bill in place or the provisions that come within this bill we would be unable to obtain those directly we would be having to fight larger jurisdictions who have The city of Buellton has a right to this fund.

I'm happy to answer any questions as best I can. I'm not an expert on the bill here, but we can walk through it if you like. Otherwise, we're looking for direction and all I would need is consensus from the council to take an official position or to authorize me to write a letter in support of this bill to our various legislators. And I'll be happy to conclude my report.

Thank you very much for your time. Section 5246 is out of the health and safety code so down below it says, in order to be eligible. The smaller jurisdiction shall comply with each of the following that includes participating complying with a regionally coordinated homeless action plan almost an action plan. ≫ Thank you. ≪ ≦

We will, should this legislation be adopted and particularly should we ever have need of the funds, we will have to look at what our current status on that plan is as well as there's other issues that you brought up here or that are in this particular section. Adopting a resolution to file the application having a compliant housing element which we do now but we'll have to look at it when we need that But yes, at this point we have a homeless action plan. It's not ours it's the county's and we are we are a member city in support of that. So would the county be the smaller jurisdiction or

would we

be? It could be either. The county has the continuum of care. That's the social service organization that That would and the county being a smaller jurisdiction would be the appropriate body to receive those funds. However, we could make application to the county's continuum of care to have some of those funds diverted directly to Buellton.

Okay. And in so doing, we'd have to demonstrate how our actions are going to be in line with that homeless action plan? That's correct. Okay cool. So that was my really only concern about this is like how we are... I don't want to bind us to anything. I know we're just maybe being a voice in support of it but I would be paying attention to how any application of funds might bind us to an action right?

Yes. We would have to evaluate the current state of the environment at the time an application is filed and you'd need to make, you as the council would need to make a determination that you're willing to accept those ties in exchange for those funds just like any other grant application.

No other questions

thank you. Any questions Council Member Lewis? Council Member Sanchez any questions?

Yeah so this is something I just.

Yeah,

we're just taking a position to

where we're taking a position this would benefit the county as well if this if this legislation were passed the county would be able to obtain these funds more easily because the county had yeah the county has less than 300 pop thousand population so this would potentially benefit the county but The county has the organization or the group of services referred to as the continuum of care. And that's where those funds would be delivered to this just what the purpose of this is to ensure that smaller counties and cities have access The number I was looking for here, $500 million in the next or in this coming fiscal year will be allocated toward this program. So it's a sizable amount of money and as we're all painfully aware the problems that this funding is intended to help solve don't exist just The point that the league is making is the cities need to get together and ensure that the smaller jurisdictions have access to the funds as well.

Thank you. Vice Mayor Mead, any questions?

No thank you.

And my question just for the sake of gisting this whole thing is basically these funds exist, they're distributed annually already. And simply this legislation is these funds even if this legislation doesn't pass those funds are still going to be distributed. This legislation is just saying that they'd like to have small jurisdictions have a chance to even be competitive for that. So the system is just gonna run the same however it goes but this legislation would allow even us just to be somewhat more competitive to receive those funds from a smaller jurisdiction exactly okay thank you Is there a public comment on this item?

So would anyone like to make a motion? I will actively pause since I know that this was brought forth by Vice Mayor Meade. So in case Vice Mayor Meade wanted to make the motion, I just want to give her the chance of doing so.

Yes, I would like to make emotion please. I second that.

What is the motion?

To direct staff to write a letter of support for Assembly Bill 1708 please.

Okay,

I seconded.

≫ All right. Next up is item number

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. Tonight as part of our budget process we'll be going over mid-year budget. Our policy calls that every six months we review the budget And determine where we're at in regards to the budget versus actuals. And if there are any budget amendments that need to be made tonight, I will only be looking at those funds that have.

Budget amendments but also just highly focusing on the general fund, which is our operating budget. In addition to the enterprise funds for water and sewer special revenue funds have a restriction based on their used. Which is why they're special revenues so I'm not going to go. Um, I'm not going to not going to review them. They're pretty self explanatory and attachment 1 shows all the budget to actuals and Scott if you can give me permission to share.

Sorry.

Absolutely.

No problem.

I don't

know why it's not allowing me to share. I'm missing something. Oh, did you share? I did. Yeah, okay.

More

exciting.

They're sending that's over here,

I think it might be host tools for share.

Oh, those tools. Okay, no, no, yeah, you can share this as host only

so we need to get there you go.

That's

where it's at. Yeah, they changed. Thank you. There you go

okay so Here's a budget overview. The proposed budgets still allow the budget to be balanced. The proposed budget amendments increase revenue by $98,800 and increase expenditures by $98 800 as well. And there was no changes to capital improvement budget. The only changes that we had was general fund and the water fund So, looking at the general fund we have about 18.2 million dollars in funding sources and 18.2 in total use of sources and when we look at our fund balance We're looking at maintaining a reserve level of 35% of off-grid expenditures. So based on this proposed budget, we're looking at a target level of about $4.4 million.

Anything above that is available for future use. That's 4.8 million dollars which is available based on our general Fund reserve policy, whether it's funding accrued liabilities funding capital improvement projects. Funding 1 time expenditures that do not decrease operating. Cost in the future or new startup programs. And then taking a look at our general fund revenues.

Uh, year to date most of our revenue categories exceed budget. So at 50% of the year are top revenue sources which is property tax sales tax TOT already above the 50%. And then as I noted on the staff report, franchise fees usually lag because we get the majority from PG&E and SoCal Gas and they're distributed in April. So even though we show that at 50% of the budget year, we're at 36%, we're targeted to hit budget revenue projections.

And then I just noted that the only change to the budgeted revenue is an increase in the use of reserves of $69,800. So this $69 800 is an increase to the use of reserves to fund or offset the increases and expenditure that I will talk about in a moment So here's an overall overview of the general fund expenditures. Again, year-to-date these departments are within budget as I mentioned in the staff report City Council is slightly above budget but it's expected to meet budget projections one of the biggest expenditures in that department was the special election so everything after that should catch up city attorney, there were charges that had to do for a code enforcement case which is why it showed an overage. But we also received revenue from those code enforcement which helped offset the increase in cost.

Non-departmental just by the nature of the costs associated with it, which are annual contributions or insurance liability, CalPERS unfunded accrued liability. Those tend to be large expenditures all done at the beginning of the fiscal year and that department meets budget projections by the end of the year. We also have a proposed budget amendment, which I will discuss further and that's just to increase operation expenditures. And also most of that has to do with previously City Council approved contracts.

And another one that has an overage of 50% is the library. Again, it's just we pay the City of Goleta once a year at the beginning of the fiscal year so that pretty much absorbs the whole budget and then all the others are within the 50% budget so I won't go into depth. I won't discuss those as I go I'll mention what those proposed budgets are So the first one for the non-departmental.

Non-departmental is proposed to increase $39,300. The first one is to recognize the approval of the sponsorship of the Sinai Valley Botanic Garden that was approved on February 26th, 2026 and that was $10,000 The second budget amendment proposal is a $5,000 increase to computer maintenance and software. We found that there was higher than anticipated software costs. Some softwares were actually increased between 5% to 10%.

In addition we increased software licensing for Sentinel-1 which is our anti-ransom software. So we determined that it was very important to increase users I think it went from 33 users to 47. And then the 2nd, 1 was also related to computer Internet access and website maintenance. We have a proposed budget amendment of 4900. There was higher service cost and maintenance costs for the website in addition to the rising Internet rates.

And that's something that we're, we hope to explore if see, to determine if there's any way to decrease those rates. We were locked into lower rates for the last 2 years and this current fiscal year they went up significantly. And then on the next proposed budget amendment Is a $5,800 increase to the electric charges. This was due to rate hike which some. Some rates went up anywhere from 10 to 20%, and this results in a 5,800 dollar increase.

And then the last budget may proposed. Is for the approval of a previous year grant. There was an organization that did not submit an invoice for their fiscal year, 2324 grant. That was approved by City Council. There was various attempts to contact this agency, but it wasn't until last month when they were doing an internal audit when they contacted the city and asked about their missing payment.

So this proposed budget amendment of 13600 dollars is to allow the disbursement of the prior year grant. And then the next department that has a proposed budget amendment is the landscape maintenance. This is a small one, but it's also related to PG&E's rate hikes and this was an increase of $600. And then the last department in the general fund that has a proposed budget amendment is the planning department and the total is $29,900 The 1st, 1 again has to do with PG and ease.

Great hike so the, the overage right now is 4900 dollars. So we're proposing an increase in the electric charge for the planning department of 4900. And then the next one was approved last city council meeting on March 12th. And City Council approved the contract with Cosmo and Associates for the preparation of the economic development element of the Comprehensive General Plan for $25,000.

Um, so I have an overview of the wastewater fund. Uh, this fund did not require any proposed adjustments but because we are doing a media review, um, I just wanted to show that our wastewater fund. You know, it's doing better we've received 46%. Of charges for services, um. We're at total operating revenue received the 45.86 of budgeted. And then for the expenses, we've expensed a little bit over 50%. Most of it is in operating.

Employee services is less than 50%, minor capital less than 50% and right now it's an operating deficit of a little over 300,000. And next the water fund, the water fund is doing much better with the rate increases. We've already received 52.98% of the current budget, which includes. Then the projected revenue from the increases in the rates. So, overall total operating revenues are at 53.71% and the operating expenses are below the 50% of 47.07%. And the water fund is showing an operating surplus of $214,362.