City Council — April 9, 2026

I would

like to call this meeting to order at 6.02.

Councilmember Hornick? Councilmember Lewis? Here. Councilmember Sanchez? Here. Vice Mayor Mead? Here. And Mayor Silva?

Is there any reordering of the agenda this evening?

We have no reordering this evening.

Okay, great! So we do have a number of presentations this evening so what I'm going to do is all will have public comment for the proclamations as they come up. We'll read the proclamation and we'll have some comments from the council and then I'm gonna call a recess and then we'll do pictures with everyone afterwards since there are so many. So I just wanted to kind of lay the groundwork for how this is going to go okay?

So I'm going to start with the proclamation recognizing National Donate Life Month, which is April 2026. So do we have any speakers for that proclamation? Hi welcome! Come on up sir you can come right here to the podium thank you so much

Yes,

I'm going to read it out loud after your comments if that's okay. Take

your time. Thank you. Basically what happened is I was on a friend's sailboat That's right, Anchorage, Santa Cruz Island. And a patrol came up behind me and said, Mr. Burns, we have a kidney break. It was basically a lady who was a nurse at Cottage Hospital died suddenly. Her family decided that maybe the organ should be donated. She had a pink dot on her driver's license so that's what it is. I ended up with a kidney. Somebody else got another kidney. They had a liver, lungs, heart. So I'm always promoting it trying to make it happen. If you guys can kind of have people Or you hear someone who needs one, and they're wondering what to do because it took a long time at the beginning to learn how to do it.

You guys can figure out a way to walk in two steps. I'm sure after the chat. What's happening to Front Brush? About 100,000 people in the nation are waiting for an ordinance. In California, it's just under 20,000 people. And in the cities and the county of Santa Barbara last month there was 189 people We're waiting. So I'm just trying to promote it right now, we have a lot of people that come here in Santa Monica County that end up knowing a lot about early transplants on that phone you can get these presentations with the proclamation I'm going to get once I receive it and about the end of the month I'll be taking them down to Red Walk in Los Angeles where there will be other people that will be seeing the proclamation and then it will end up generally in DMV Thank you.

And thank you for sharing your story. All right, so now I'll read the proclamation recognizing National Donate Life Month April 2026

Whereas organ, eye, tissue, marrow and blood donation are life-giving acts recognized worldwide as expressions of compassion to those in need. And more than 103,000 individuals nationwide and more than 23,000 in California are currently on the National Organ Transplant Waiting List. And on average 17 people die each day while waiting. And whereas the need for donated organs is especially urgent in Hispanic, Latino and African-American communities. And a single individual's donation of the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas and small intestine can save up to eight lives. And the donation of tissue can save and heal the lives of more than 75 others.

And whereas organ donors saved more than 46,000 lives last year and any person can register to be an organ eye and tissue donor regardless of age or medical conditions also being a registered donor does not impact the quality of life-saving medical care a person receives in an emergency. And, whereas California residents can sign up with the Donate Life California donor registry online at any time by visiting www.donatelifecalifornia.org or for Spanish speakers www.vidacalifornian.org And whereas California residents can sign up to be an organ, eye and tissue donor when applying for or renewing their driver's licenses or ID cards at the California Department of Motor Vehicles where California residents interested in saving a life through living kidney donation may visit www.livingdonationcalifornia.org Now therefore be it resolved that in recognition of National Donate Life Month, the month of April 2026 is hereby proclaimed DMV Donate Life Month in the City of Buellton and in doing so we encourage all Californians to check yes online or when applying for or renewing their driver's license or ID card at the DMV.

Thank you. So thank you so much for sharing your story. I think hearing the fact that one person in their donation can absolutely save so many lives is especially impactful, and one of you are sitting right here. I think organ donation is something that we have to think beyond ourselves, right? And I'm very happy that we're doing this proclamation and thank you so much for being here and accepting it.

Council members any other comments?

No just thank you very much

for

sharing your story. It goes a long way.

Okay,

next up we're going to have the proclamation recognizing sexual assault and child abuse awareness and prevention month. Do we have any public speakers for that?

Sure,

come on up! Yeah it is a party you're all gonna have to be in the picture later anyway so you might as well just make yourself known now it's fine.

I am so happy to be standing here with Two of our amazing county partners. This is District Attorney John Savernoff and Victim Witness Advocate, well actually Supervisor Advocate in the Santa Maria office, Ileana Onda. My name is Anne McCarty Vice Mayor Mead, members of the City Council. I'm the Executive Director for the North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center. And I am truly humbled to stand before you once again tonight to receive this proclamation.

Over the years one of the things that has become most meaningful to me is a power partnership. I am deeply grateful to the city of Buellton that you recognize the value of work that we all do and honor not only our agency, but also our dedicated partners. Our child welfare services, our law enforcement partners, the district attorney's office and the victim witness division.

This work can't be done in isolation. Collaboration is essential, not only in providing direct services, but also prevention and education. Our shared goal is simple yet it is profound A future with no more sexual violence, no more sexual assault and no more child abuse. While I'm proud of the work that's been done throughout our county, the reality is that there is still much more ahead of us.

Knowing that the city of Buellton stands with us in our mission gives us hope and strengthens our resolve. The numbers are indeed staggering. One child harm is way too many. We all say no more. And until that becomes the reality, we will continue doing what we do. We will continue to support survivors. We will continue to educate the community. Law enforcement will continue to investigate and hold offenders accountable.

Social workers will continue to protect children. The district attorney's office will continue to prosecute and victim witness advocates will continue to walk alongside survivors with compassion and guidance through the legal process. Each of us takes our role seriously, and together we strive to ensure that every victim receives care and support they deserve.

We know we're making a difference, but direct services alone aren't enough. Our goal is to prevent abuse before it ever happens and when we cannot, we want every individual to know that help is available and they're not alone. Recently our staff supported a young man through the process of reporting abuse that occurred when he was very young. As he prepared his victim impact statement, What led him to come forward?

He shared that it was a presentation in his seventh grade classroom, one of our prevention programs. That helped him understand what had happened to him was abuse. He remembered learning about grooming online exploitation and how to seek help. That knowledge stayed with him and eventually he found the courage to tell I'm happy to say that the district attorney's office prosecuted that case, and that offender received 24 years in prison.

While it's difficult to fully measure the impact of our work, his story is a powerful reminder that education matters. It empowers, it protects, and sometimes it changes the force of life. No one should ever suffer in silence. No one should ever go without support.

≫ Thank you.

The first step. Yes, exactly. Thank you.

All right. Last up we have the proclamation recognizing National Arbor Day. I don't believe we have any public comments but City Manager Scott Wolf would you like to say a few words?

Yes just a few thank you Madam Vice Mayor. We don't have a recipient for Arbor day because this Arbor day proclamation is something that the city is proclaiming for itself let's put it that way. We have had for the past year and a half or so an initiative working in the city we call it the Thousand Trees Initiative, and one of the primary goals if not the primary goal of that initiative is to support and encourage The issuance of a proclamation such as this last year not only brought attention to the Thousand Trees Initiative and what we're trying to achieve, it also was one of the qualifying factors that allowed us to apply for and receive the designation of Tree City USA from the National Arbor Day Foundation. So I'm very happy that the city council has decided to repeat this proclamation again this year and I hope that we continue to do it in the future The tree city designation is a rather highly respected designation amongst cities throughout California and the entire country.

And I'm proud that we have it. Thank you very much.

Proclamation recognizing National Arbor Day, April 24th 2026. Whereas Arbor Day celebrates the role of trees in our lives and promotes tree planting and care it was initiated in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton of Nebraska City who said other holidays focus upon the past arbor day focuses on the future Arbor Day is now celebrated throughout the nation and the world. And whereas trees are important, we couldn't live without them. They clean the air and produce the oxygen we breathe. They provide habitat for wildlife and help to keep the climate in balance. They give us paper wood for our homes, fuel for our fires and countless other wood products. And whereas trees increase property values and enhance the beauty and vitality of our community, and whereas planting trees is an act of kindness and optimism, the celebration of Arbor Day represents a priceless opportunity for everyone to take positive actions and make your world a better place.

Now therefore, I Carla Meade, Vice Mayor of the City of Buellton for David Silva, Mayor of the City of Buellton on behalf of the Buellton City Council hereby proclaim April 24th 2026 to be known as Arbor Day in the city of Buellton and we urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor day by planting and caring for trees and support efforts in our city to protect our trees. So you guys give it up for Buellton. Any comments?

I was excited to hear that we were at Tree City, got that proclamation and do the hard work. I think Hudson started it and Dave King was in on it and it was a good accomplishment. Proud to be part of it.

Thank you. Okay so we're gonna take up a few minute recess. We're gonna bring up all the proclamation people and we'll get some

pictures. So I'm just going to declare recess right now. Good evening, everyone. We are going to bring this meeting

back to order at 631. So public comments? Do we have any public comments?

This city assisted in creating a community garden project for the residents of Buellton in 2021, which I support. My family and I became Buellton residents that same year. I joined the Buellton Community Garden Steering Committee in May of 2022. I supported the garden project with my time, my capital, and my sweat equity since that time. Subsequent to the incorporation of the garden as a nonprofit entity and prior to commissioning of the garden To the, to the public. The duly elected governing board chaired by Devin DiFazio was ousted in a coup d'etat held under the auspices of a public vote.

This vote was orchestrated by Greg Erickson, husband to the garden's founder and the records show that I was present for the vote in question but did not recognize the legitimacy and refused to cast a vote That night, Greg dissolved the board and installed himself as sole board chair. Although I shared my concerns of self-healing and conflicts of interest in writing with the deposed board chair, I continued a working relationship with the new garden administration.

On garden commissioning, I signed up for a private garden bed as a private resident gardener. Congruently, I volunteered labor and partnered with the organization to maintain composting infrastructure for the garden and for the community. Red flags plagued my dealings with the Garden Administration. In August of last year, the administration became suddenly hostile to my participation in the garden.

The compost system was dismantled suddenly and my attempts to preserve material were met with personalized contempt and hostility. The administration then began specifically targeting my family's and my gardening activities. I received inappropriate overtures demands and threats regarding my private bed and shared community beds. In October, the Garden Administration made numerous unsolicited harassing phone calls texts and confrontations in the garden.

And late October my daughter had her crop of sunflowers in a community bed targeted with destruction by this administration in the course of its intimidation tactics against me. In the early morning of Saturday, November 1st I received an unsolicited phone call from the administration as represented by Mr. Greg Erickson angrily accusing me of stealing $150 worth of soil because some dirt had been moved from one part of the garden to the other.

Later that same morning, I was accosted at the garden by representatives of the administration Greg Erickson and Dalton Scott. I was again confronted with that accusation and although I proved my innocence The administration responded that a vote had been held and that I was banned from entering Buellton's garden. On November 3rd, I informed Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department and the city manager of the non-profit's actions.

On November 5th, I reached out to my representative on this council, Representative Mead. I filed a formal complaint with the state and the city including concerns of intimidation of residents, harassment schemes and political conspiracy schemes. On November 13th, I informed the mayor, Mayor Silva directly that I believe my rights have been violated then I urged actions from this body during your meeting on November 13th.

In January, my personal property was confiscated by the organization and my private seed-saving bed hosting seeds for Buellton youth was wiped bare earth. Even the strawberry plants were carelessly destroyed. Again in February I stood before this body and appealed action. On March 7th while exercising my right to protest, administration as represented by Dalton Scott approached me and my two year old son I was told that, quote, this is why I had to ban you. And then I was told you should take your son home and then do I need to call the police?

Horrifyingly when I refused to be intimidated this garden administration did indeed fall through on its threat placing a 911 emergency call meant to harass or worse and endangering my son's life in process. Why has the city continued to do nothing And ignore my pleas while this issue continues to fester in our community. Thank you for

that. Thank

you.

Next, we have Huck Erickson-Lomas.

Denise Johns from the St. Ann's Botanic Garden.

Come on, come up

first.

Yeah, yeah.

Sure. Okay. Thank you. Sure, no problem. Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council Members. My name is Denise Johns. I'm here with other members of the San Diego Valley Botanic Garden. I'd like to share a brief update and also mostly express our interest in growing our collaboration with the City of Buellton especially with the Recreation Department. We consider ourselves to be It's a great resource to the City of Buellton for outdoor education, hands-on learning and community based programming. We have several modest volunteer supported events planned to help activate both the garden and Riverview Park in ways that are accessible, family friendly and aligned with the city goals for community engagement.

Specifically first we have a We are planning a family fun run in July. We're thinking of July 18th, it's the Saturday before the world famous Buellton barbecue bonanza and this will be a small inclusive event for participants of all ages and abilities. We would appreciate the opportunity to coordinate this, the logistics of this event with city staff Including the possibility of using city, the city's registration system. Going forward we're looking and we're especially excited by the opportunity of working more with Paul and his amazing crew in the recreation department.

We talked to them a little bit and we are looking forward to developing additional programs such as forest bathing Archery, youth-focused activities like tiny top adventures. All of these efforts are intended to be thoughtful small scale and supportive of the community. We see the garden as a partner and would like to grow with you and the city as a resource and we appreciate your time and consideration.

Thank you.

For the record, my name is Carol Erickson-Lewis and I just wanted to add a bit to what Denise has filled you in on for after 20 years. We're really excited that there's so many community programs going on in a garden that we thought was originally just for plants. We have a snake day coming up That I hope you'll all participate in and bird watching. And as Denise said, we're talking with Paul with the existing Tiny Tots program in the recreation department that really developing new programs for them in the garden.

And one of the other exciting things we're anticipating is A music program this summer, and I'll turn the mic over to Bear Erickson who can tell you more about that. And this is just...I hope we don't become too annoying but after talking to Paul, we realized it's probably...we've been pretty busy in the garden and we've been a little remiss on informing Council of everything we're up to so We hope to be a little bit more consistent in the future with our quick breakings. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I like what they just established there. It's perfect. They were like, we have a way that we want this to go. Just make sure we get names. Yes. Certainly.

All right, well let's get passed out. Let me introduce myself real quick. My name is Gray Bear Erickson and I'm the Madam Vice Mayor and Council Members today. Excited to see you all! I'm a lifelong resident of the Valley and have been running the recording studio for Eugene Music in Buellton and the Greater Valley for 25 years. I'm also a father and family here with me today This year, I'm excited that we're finally starting a new nonprofit in the Valley. It's called MAS. It stands for Music and Art Support. More music, more art, and more community.

I'm here today to inform the City Council that I am in partnership with the San Diego Valley Botanic Garden to create a summer music program that will provide the community with the opportunity to enjoy global folk music surrounded by nature I've printed out the details of the four events that we're presenting to the public this summer. And I would love to quickly tell you about the wonderful groups that we have coming to The Garden real quick.

The opening series is going to be Joaquin Cooter, who is a son of the more famous Ry Cooter and Joaquin and his group are coming out from New York for the show with a 90-minute set. And after Joaquín Cooter, we then have a really amazing quintet coming from Santa Barbara The Irish Folk Quintet led by Adam Phillips of the Santa Barbara Folk Orchestra. Then we have the Cal State Northridge Marimba Ensemble coming out for that.

In closing, the series is an amazing world-renowned mariachi youth ensemble from Delano California. Each of the four events are the last Sunday in a month for the months of June through September and the Music in the Garden events will be featuring groups from out of the area I'm very excited to bring this program to life this summer. I appreciate the support of the city and would love to see all of you at the events, and if you have any questions I am happy to answer them.

Great, thank you so much. Public comment isn't for question and answer but I'm sure that we can follow up with you with any other additional questions.

Two things just to let you know. Thank you. These events are self-funded so they come at no cost to the city and there's going to be a huge benefit to families in the area that all the events are sliding scale so whether you can pay for tickets or can't pay everyone is welcome to the events. Wonderful. All

right thank you so much and thank you for keeping us in the loop with what's going on in The Garden. I appreciate the efforts. Any other public comments? That concludes our public comment. Okay, great. We still have a little bit more work to do but if you choose to exit currently that is also okay with

us. Before we go I would like to make a motion to have a public presentation because he wouldn't say more about it and what's going on without him.

What?

Would it be rather to kind of make something that we can solidify? It sounded like I was asking permission or if you have permission for that kind of thing. Are you inviting

us

with a plan so we know? Yes,

the overarching idea is that we want to inform and obviously if there are any questions or concerns bring them up and make sure Anything that we're doing in the garden has the full and robust support of the city as our

partner. It does by me, and I appreciate all the music is something that I've always wanted to have and it brings joy everywhere and anything with a garden It's okay by me. I just didn't know we were going to have a...

I think, Mel, maybe this is something that staff can contact the garden and get some more details on what kind of support they're really looking

for. I will do that. Given the short time frame associated with some of these events that appear to have already been planned, I highly recommend that they contact the planning department and figure out what needs to be done so that if there are changes that need to be made, There will be some potential issues here. The council may have to take action with regard to amendment of some of our policies regarding large events, depending upon how large these events maybe.

I need to figure that out. We'll have them talk to the planning department and then I will evaluate what's going on here and bring it back

≫ Okay. Thank you. Thanks, everyone. ≫

Thank you for all your effort in the story.

I would like to make a motion to accept the consent calendar as presented.

≫ Good afternoon. Last week there was a car stolen around the corner from us on Nina, and I wanted to follow up on possibly we were talking about having cameras in town or my idea, I don't know if this is discussed much further but I think it's important to have some kind of record. And strategically located cameras like on the corner, like Alicia's corners under a streetlight. In my street there's a corner house that would catch anything but apparently this car theft they drove past both our houses to get out and not past mine because I'm going to call it set. But I just like to follow up on some kind of participation in the ring with the sheriff kinda thing I know we talked about it before, but I don't know whether it didn't go any further.

It has. As I recall, it is potentially still on our list of priorities, although I will have to go back and take a look at the list. It was something I was pursuing on a more grand scale through the installation of cameras at entry points and exit points to the city That, as you may be aware has become somewhat of a controversial topic and so I have kind of pushed off my discussions with the potential vendors until things settle out a little bit and we figure out what we're really dealing with here right now. A couple of these vendors are There are some accusations regarding the sharing of data that may or may not be appropriate. So we'll take a closer look at with regard to the ring camera system, I can talk to the Sheriff's Department or the ring camera option.

I can talk to the Sheriff's Department and see if their view on that has changed. They were not necessarily in favor of that at the time I talked to them but I'll bring it up again.

Yeah, I didn't know. I knew we talked about it before. The other thing I wanted to ask about was the property below the water treatment plant that we just did, nine acres of city property now. Instead of having a bike path they gave us. Oh correct yeah. Somebody asked me about an area to plant trees and since we own that I thought it might be a possibility to maybe let a nursery go in there or something some kind of a tree farm that would be city property but it'd also be something good It's a pretty and be useful property that we own.

That isn't or can't build anything on it, but I thought would be good for some kind of free water down there.

I would be happy to talk to anyone who wants to talk about it. The major concerns that I would have just on the surface here would have to do with jurisdictional issues with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and Army Corps of Engineers, but if we can work our way through that and the council is amenable

I just have a lot of community events that are going on that I'd like to remind everyone about. The new hours for the farmers market are now from 3 to 7 p.m. on the Avenue of Flags, so hopefully everyone can come out and enjoy that. There's a new community art project into the forest where selected pieces will be turned into our city's banners and you can learn more about that at Buellton.art. The due date is actually April 19th, so it's coming up The Buellton Rotary Club is doing an ABBA Flags cleanup on the April 18th. They're meeting in front of P.C. Anderson's at 9 a.m., in case anyone is interested in joining that beautification of our city.

Obviously, there are still tickets available for Annie. I know everyone's very excited about that. Just a few, okay. So get them while they're hot you guys. Annie will be performed 17th and the 18th of April. The Peddler Fair at Riverview Park is going to be held on April 25th. People Helping People is actually hosting a child abuse prevention workshop on Friday, April 24th in person and on Zoom from 10 AM to 12 PM. And you can reach out to people helping people to learn more about that The Flying Miss Daisy's Vintage Market, which used to actually take place in Solvang is now going to be here in Buellton. So that's really exciting. It's gonna be on May 23rd from nine to three free admission on Avenue of the Flags. And lastly I just wanted to say thank you to all the city staff and to the council members that have worked so hard on the Tree City designation it's really exciting obviously it's just one more thing that Buellton is doing right and so I just wanted to say thank you for the city staff and the council members that have worked on We have a lot of things going on in the city.

We are making sure that we got that recognition and it is really exciting for Buellton to have all those things. That is it for me. Is there any written communications?

Yes, I would. Thank you very much Madam Vice Mayor members of the City Council business item number eight review of the annual comprehensive financial report also known as the ACFR for fiscal year ended June 30th 2025 this is our annual report that tells us where the money is at and our staff contact on this is our finance director Chanel Zamora

Good evening, Vice Mayor and members of the City Council. I am pleased to present you the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report otherwise known as the ACFER for the fiscal year ending June 30th 2025. This report provides a complete and transparent picture of the city's financial condition and I'm pleased to report that the city continues to demonstrate strong fiscal health is not required to be submitted by cities.

We're only required to do the basic financial statements for the past 11 years, the city has received an award for financial excellence and financial reporting. And the act for is organized into 3 sections. The introduction was provides a background of the city. It talks about the demographics, the economy and then the financial section which includes the management discussion and analysis section, which is the MDNA includes the basic financial statements notes in the independence auditor's report.

The last section, the statistical section presents up to 10 years of unaudited financial and demographic trends to help assess the long-term financial performance. The financial statements are prepared in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles gap as established by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board known as the GASB. The independent, the city's independent auditors on Moss leaving Hartsine conducted the audit for the financial statements. They issued an unmodified which is a clean opinion for the fiscal year ending June 30th 2025 confirming that the statements are fairly presented in conformity with GAAP and identifying no material weakness or compliance issues. This reflects the strength of the city's internal controls and financial practices I would like to highlight key financial results from the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025.

Overall, the city's net position increased by $2.8 million or 5.1% from the prior fiscal year bringing the total net position to 57.98 million. This reflects investment in capital assets and stable financial operations. The general fund, the city's main operating fund remains strong ending the year with an unassigned fund balance of $15 million. Our reserve policy requires a minimum of 35% of operating expenditures to be reserved which fiscal year 24-25 that number was 3.57 million which as a result is more than 11.6 in reserves, which provides a significant flexibility for future needs and priorities.