City Council — September 14, 2026

Great. All right, thank you all. We'll bring tonight's

Well, if we're starting the meeting off this way it's going to be quite a night. So if we could please move to roll call please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, just for the benefit of the public, the agenda has a teleconference meeting location that is Council Member Sanchez's meeting location. He is traveling and posted his location. Council Member Lewis is traveling on government business which is one of the exceptions to posting your location. You can use exceptions four times per year and the City Clerk keeps track of those.

You only get four no matter which of the just cause items you utilize. So the city clerk is tracking that, and if Council Member Lewis hits four then at that time her site would be posted even if it were otherwise a just cause absence. That's all Mr. Mayor. Just wanted to get that out for the public. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. And we'll now move to which I know will be a little bit of mapping, a lot more reordering of the agenda tonight.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. We do have a little bit of reordering. The first reordering would be item number one like to move that to take place after item number four.

Earning industry credentials while they're in high school and the programs are designed around hands-on skills and career preparation to really get these kids local workforce and career ready. Just a little bit about our Alan Hancock courses. We currently have 29 classes, Alan Hancock classes for dual enrollment where our students are earning high school credit as well as earning college credit. We have 29 of those classes there all taught by our staff. on our campus and funded by our district. We have English history, we have Spanish courses, agriculture, sports medicine, digital media and design, auto economics communications and dance. We're looking to expand opportunities in music and computer science And just so that everybody knows, approximately at Allan Hancock, approximately 25% of Allan Hancock's enrollment are high school students from Santa Maria, Orchid, all of the high school areas.

So we have a really good working relationship with Allan Hancock. Now measure D and the tax impact. So it is an $80 million bond with 25 year terms We would be taking it out in four installments. So we would be taking it out over four withdraws, so like if it's a home equity line of credit, we wouldn't take the whole 80 million out at once. We would take 20 million out and part of that is because you only have three years to complete the project from the time you withdraw the money. So we want to ensure that our projects are really quality projects. So what really will it cost people in the Valley? So I have two examples of what it will cost. It's the average tax rate is $21.73 per $100,000 of assessed value and I think it's really important to make sure that we know the difference between assessed value versus market value.

So there's two examples here. So for example, a home on Roblar that's three bedrooms, two baths currently at 1600 square feet. The current market value if it were to be listed today would be 1.938. $1,938,000. Right? But the assessed value of that home and the people that live in it is $289,417. So the actual tax impact of the assessed value on that home and the people that live there, it's not the market value.

is $62.89 once the bond is fully withdrawn so once all four of those installments have been taken out And then a home on Santa Rosa, five bedrooms four baths. 2600 square feet probably a little bit more realistic to what value home prices are right now. The market value is 3.95 million but their assessed value is 992,000 with an annual tax impact of about $215 and change.

And that's after the bond is fully withdrawn. So if we only take out 25% of the bond, your tax impact is only 25%, until we fully take out the entire bond. Also... If you want to go forward two slides, yeah. Yeah thank you. Also when you pass bonds there are many opportunities in the state for matching fund money through Prop 2. There are set-asides for small school districts which we qualify. There's matching fund money for new construction, for modernization, for career tech ed programs and then there's funds at the state for emergency or safety funds And then the state also has loan programs, which we don't really want to participate in their loan programs. But for example, the CareerTechEd pathways that I described to you are each of our pathways they would match funds and we would get $3 million for each of the pathways.

So by passing a bond, we actually expand our opportunities in the academic areas Just a little bit about Measure K. So, Measure K passed in 2016. It was a local bond for $14.7 million. There's those matching funds that we talked about. We were able to secure $7.75 million in matching funds which meant our total bond program came to $22 million, a little over 22 million. Through that entire process there was annual audits So that's that's really great.

I'm going to go ahead and share my screen real quick. We can go about four sides to cost saving measures in measure K and how we tried to save costs. We did competitive bid construction, we conducted public bids, we used construction management oversight. One of the big things that Our facilities people prepped all the work so that we wouldn't have to pay for that prep work. So, we would be looking at those same cost saving measures.

If you can go 1 more. I just really want to highlight that we are one public high school campus, the only public high school that serves Solvang, Buellton, San Ynez, Ballard and Los Olivos. We really are looking at becoming even more of a community hub than we currently are so we're really hoping to improve that for everyone in the community We are really where the valley gathers. The high school is not separate from the community, it's one of the places where the community becomes visible And it's really more about Measure D is more than just classrooms. It's about all those career technical education pathways, making sure that we honor what students need and preparing them for whatever future they want. We have a robust A through G. We have a robust AP program.

Pipeline with Alan Hancock and kids getting dual immersion. We want to make sure that we also offer students marketable skills. And then I think just in closing, I mean, I could stand up here and geek out and talk to you guys about the high school all day. But just in closing, I would leave our community with the thought that every generation of students at Santa Ynez High School has benefited from the people that invested in the school before them.

Many of the people who made those investments never had a child who would sit in those seats, classrooms or play on those fields. They did it because they understand that a strong public high school matters to the entire community. Now it's our turn. Measure D is about taking care of what we have, replacing what has reached the end of its youthful life and creating a safe modern right-sized campus that can serve students in this valley for generations Whether you have children in our schools or not, San Ynez High School belongs to everyone in this community. Our students will become nurses, teachers, first responders, trade people, business owners and community leaders and this is where we prepare the next generation for the San Ynez Valley.

And again, schools educate students but strong schools really strengthen community and ultimately that's what Measure D is about. It's not simply an investment in a school it's an investment in the valley that all of us call home And I'm welcome to any questions. I don't know if that's your protocol, but we also remember you can also come Wednesday mornings for the boardroom. I'm happy to answer any questions and give you a tour so you can actually see the facilities because it's impactful when you see it.

Thank you very much. I do think we probably have a few questions. OK, but I was going to suggest to would anyone like to close that door? Because I feel like it's being I'm watching the audience slowly being blinded or really severe sunburn. That's gonna happen on the right hand side of your body. There we go. Now you can see us, hello. And I don't know if did your school board member, did you want to speak? You don't have to, I just wanted to check if you had anything you wanted to say before we go to questions.

Great, okay. We'll go with our remote access council members first maybe so that you could get your questions in since it's harder to coordinate that. Did you have any questions Council Member Lewis?

Questions.

Council Member Sanchez, any questions? No questions thank you.

All

right, Council Member Hornick, any questions? Vice Mayor Meade.

Because obviously you've given a great overview of all the things that will be funded, but like in 2027 what is that $20 million going towards? In 2030 what's the $18 million?

So we

have a

prioritized list and at the top of that list are those portables and those HVAC systems. That will ultimately be the first draw would be mainly portables And then the second draw would, then we would be able to start ticking off the list. The CTE programs, the HVAC systems which the HVAC is years and years and years old. We're barely holding it together. So yeah there is definitely a prioritized list. Is that available to the public somewhere? I can get that to them if they want to come or if anybody wants to call I can email out that ticked off prioritized

list. And then my follow-up question to that is I'm assuming that bids have gone out and that's where you're getting these. I mean, 80 million is a lot of money and right if that's what you need then that's what you need but I think there is a disconnect between why do you need $80 million in what these priorities cost? And I think I think it would be great if the school district could provide some information about where those numbers are coming from for the cost of those priorities.

So we worked with construction companies that we've worked with in the past, we worked with an architecture firm that we worked with in the past, we came up with a list and then we asked about not only the costs of the projects but Escalation, predicted escalation costs that might come along with those projects and then also soft costs. So for example when you put in portables and it would be approximately on our campus plus the Refugio campus is separate but we would be replacing those portables as well on our campus it's about 20 portables. The soft costs are the furniture that needs to go in there All that is figured into these costs so that there aren't any surprises on the back end.

And you can make that information available to the public if they request it from you?

We have, Alicia's here too. She's like playing both roles but yes we have what we anticipate the cost soft costs with escalation of each and every project

I think something in the issue is we don't have plans drawn. So, until we start getting into drawing plans it's harder to have concrete numbers so the numbers are based on generalizations of X number of dollars per square foot for this type of building or this type of thing. So they are based loosely on the 50 year plan but they don't have architectural drawings from which we are creating estimates.

We went to Sacramento, spoke with the Office of Public School Construction and DSA which every project has to go through. And discussed all that with them and came up with but we weren't going to go out and get architectural drawings or plans and spend money before we... But yes, we have estimated costs for every project.

Okay great. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks Alicia!

Just a few, one is just to make sure for the public to understand from a bond, since I've got you here nerding out on bond stuff. So just so if I can summarize it correctly, assessed value is roughly whatever you purchased your house at or refinanced your house at and then Prop 13, so has kept it set, your assessed value can't increase more than 2% per year. So if you bought your house in 1976 and you haven't sold it or refined it, it's just 2% increased each time. So when you're figuring out internally or mentally for your math there on back of your napkin that's how you're solving the bond plan correct?

Correct. Because like a lot of us when we, I mean I'm a renter in the valley but when people own a home they're like oh my home's worth 2.3 million dollars so in a lot of homeowners minds they believe that when you say $21.73 on $100,000 of a set, they think It's on the market value of what they believe their house is worth and their house probably is worth that today. But really, what you're being charged is on the actual assessed value that you described.

And so anyone who wants to know what they're going to experience with could check their property tax bill and that's a better thing. Don't look at Zillow looking for your property taxes. See

what their assessed value actually is.

Great! And go from there. My only other few was just will there be coordination with our local trades and union halls? I know you brought up that there's a lot of that option there, so I'm sure this construction leads into working with our local trades as well for bringing them in for the construction portion. But are they also then going to be involved in the curriculum portion you just described as well?

Yes, we're really hoping to partner for all of our career tech ed pathways. We already partner with a lot of people in the community. I can give you the example that our teacher in our auto class kind of did a summer intensive at Buellton Garage. Just to make sure that he was up on what the industry needs and what the industry is offering, and what he needs to bring back to the classroom. We will continue to partner with them. If we could hopefully expand that construction pathway, we would be working with local plumbers. I know you guys are having an event on the 16th right here. We would like to tap into all of that and bring those people into set up internships, apprentices for our students.

Just be hands on show kids actually how to do it. I can give you an example when we were doing our beach volleyball courts which were donated by the Education Foundation several kids were very interested in welding and there was a welder out there and he had them come out for the day Show them all about welding. One of those kids graduated last year, he's at Allan Hancock in their welding program. I believe Buellton, one of the organizations in Buellton actually scholarshiped all of his stuff to get involved in Buellton. He came two weeks ago three weeks ago to our football game because he used to be part of the pit crew. I said Oliver how's it going? He's like I'm killing it He said, I'm killing it in the welding program. And because I was in the auto shop here he's working as a diesel mechanic for large engines in the valley funding his way through everything and I said that's amazing Oliver like and that's what we want to continue to generate in the valley.

Like if you need to call a plumber, you're going to call a plumber in the valley and not have to call somebody in Santa Maria or Santa Barbara and wait, wait, wait, wait, they're going to be available. We want to expand that pipeline and have kids ready to go. Those dirty jobs that Mike Rowe talks about, they're the new six-figure incomes coming up here so...

I love that we have as you know, we have the electricians, we have the ventilators right here in town so getting them connected is gonna be great so I love that. I did want to just flag for you, if you've met at all with 3CE because there's some opportunities here from energy efficiency and there's a lot of grant opportunities. So if not we can follow up later but it'd be great connecting with them because when you do these infrastructure profit projects there's a lot of ways that you can get money from external sources and grant programs so that you can make sure you're optimized there. And then finally just because In case I apologize if you were not wanting to speak up to it purposely, but I didn't know if he also wanted to touch on. Do you want to speak at all?

We've done partnerships with the recreational and the pool space. Did you want to talk it off to that at all just to give a preview of that?

Absolutely. I have that under my frequently asked questions because that's. One of the things that everybody is really interested in, we have had a fantastic working relationship with the Santa Ynez Aquatics Foundation. With the two cities who are generously donating to the aquatics foundation and then with the Chumash who's also supporting this. We are really, really excited that we have outside of the bond. We have a large chunk of money that is becoming available to the high school for the high school portion of getting these pools built.

We really believe that we are going to have at least one community pool and competition pool where everybody in the valley will be able to access that for water safety. Every student in our school swims in that pool during PE because they all have to pass their swim unit, they have to become water safe We also are doing lifeguarding classes, which are making students eligible to have summer jobs and work as lifeguards. But yeah the working relationship that we have with the Aquatics Foundation, with the two cities and with the Chumash I really really am optimistic that we are actually going to get a phenomenal pool built that everybody in our community can access Perfect,

thank you so much. I appreciate your time tonight.

Thank you.

And I think we will move on. Do we have any public comment on this item at this time? Okay, perfect.

So do you want to pull it? There's a David Turner.

Okay, so then what we'll want to do is... Oh yeah. Come on up Ms. Cray. We'll have you start. So I bet you will start our public comment with three minutes for each public comment at this time. And then I believe it seems like we have one comment and there's another. Ms. El-Amin are you here for this item as well? All right. So we want to make sure we confirm if there's any others for that. Thank you for being here Ms. Cray.

Good evening members of the community and the board. My name is Sue Turner-Cray, I'm a local resident, taxpayer and someone who cares really deeply about our schools. I'm here to shed some light on some left out facts regarding the bond. In 2016 we trusted the district My husband and I voted for the $15 million bond because we were promised it would fix our school.

But if you talk to the teachers, they'll tell you the real story—broken promises, mismanaged priorities and a total lack of proper oversight. The HVAC was supposed to be fixed with the $50 million, and the theatre was supposed to be fixed then. But now Dr. Sheehan is on a PR campaign to sell a narrative on a massive $80 million bond, which is over five times the amount of the last one. This debt will be strapped to our property tax bills for 35 years.

Just yesterday we heard the superintendent on the radio and we believe that she's rubbing elbows in meeting with the wealthiest stakeholders and power players in the valley to push this through. But we need to look who is actually holding the reins. Superintendent Sheehan is an employee of Board President Chris Johnson. She answers directly to him, she's paid by him and has to do exactly what he says. And Chris Johnson is the man overseeing the $80 million bond.

Now, the very first thing Chris Johnson did after being sworn into the board was to demote Jose Manibara who was the sitting board president and the only Latino ever to sit on that high school board in its 135 years since 1896. Then after we cleared him out of the way, Mr. Johnson brought in fear into our high school. It was a framework that gave teachers the opportunity to out vulnerable LGBTQ students traumatizing our students and sparked massive protests on campus.

So now Mr. Johnson wants 80 million of our tax dollars for three and a half decades. And the oversight committee will be hand selected by him and his common sense cronies. They are trying to slip this bond past us right now because they know community-minded voters will be out in force this November. They are trying to exploit our love for our public schools, and our students deserve safe facilities, and taxpayers deserve integrity and true accountability. And I would just like to add, why are we spending $80 million on 729 students at the high school? Surely it's only fair to share that kind of funding with our neighboring schools. All elementary and feeder schools play a massive critical role in developing our students before they ever step onto a high school campus.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Next public comment from Denise Ellen.

Thank you for being here. Hi, my name is Denise Ellamine. I'm a resident of Solvang, a taxpayer, a parent and a grandmother in this valley. I am standing here tonight to tell you plainly that we are voting no on Measure D. We all want safe, quality schools for our kids. But asking this community to hand Santa Ynez Valley Board member Chris Johnson $80 million requires a level of irrefutable trust and the Santa Ynez Valley board simply has not earned it.

The Santa Ynez board sent out these expensive Glossy color ads trying to sell us on strict oversight. But let's look at your track record. In 2016, we trusted you with Measure K. The law specifically requires at least seven independent members on that Oversight Committee to watch our money. You failed... the board failed to follow those basic guidelines. You left just four handful of friends to watch $14 million of public funds. So let's be real, if we couldn't trust you, the Santa Ynez board, to properly oversee a $13 million bond, we would be fools to trust you with 80 million.

The San Leon S board school high school claims this money is for true emergencies, leaky roofs, broken plumbing. But your own August 18th meeting exposed your real priorities. You are pushing a massive expensive competitive community swimming pool. Only 5.6 of the students on the campus will ever use this pool. It is insulting to prioritize a luxury hobby for five percent of the student body over the basic educational needs of the other 94%.

Let's talk about who really pays for this bond. I have my tax bill here. I already have three bonds on my tax bill now that I will be paying one is from 2006-2006, one and that's for Solvang Elementary. Santa Ynez High School has one from 2016 that's Measure K and then Allan Hancock has one from 2006 That's three. Alan Hancock is now asking, and it will be on the ballot in November for a $240 million bond.

And now Santa Ynez Valley Board wants another bond so we will have the one on my thing. So I'll have five bonds that I will be paying for. And I know the difference between assessed and market And my assessed value is never been $200,000. I think you'd have to be 80 or 90 years old for it to be that. And I just want to make it clear that when you die and your trust and your kids take over that trust, guess what? They're going to be taxed at the market value. It will not be assessed value. So just be clear when you vote on this bond that you know the difference between assessed and market because assessed is only there for the original buyers. And when they're gone, or when you sell or you need to downgrade, you are now in market value.

Thank you very

much.

That includes public comments on this item?

Just want to confirm no one else had filled out a form wanting to speak on this item here just ensure we got that okay thank you very much and thank you for being here tonight All right. We will now

Hello! I'm going to show you some dogs and cats so... I say thank you.

Alright well thank you for being here to talk about dogs and cats.

Thank you for having me. Do you have my...

There we go.

Great. I mean, if I can use the dogs and cats, I should right? All right well good evening everyone my name is Dr. Shawna Shank. I'm the executive director and veterinarian at San Ynez Valley Humane Society and dog right here in Buellton. And I'd like to thank you for the opportunity... To share how this grant has translated to real, measurable impact at San Ynez Valley Humane.

We were awarded $12,500 over two years and that support has helped strengthen one of the most important parts of our operation, our clinic. The clinic is where public service and shelter life-saving meet. It is where owned pets I'm pleased to announce that we will be launching a new proposal for shelter animals. The goal of the proposal is to provide affordable care where shelter animals become healthy and adoption ready and where we prevent future litters from entering an already strained shelter system.

When we submitted the proposal, we framed the need very simply. The proposal specifically described our low-cost clinic as a way to provide affordable spay and neuter services and vaccines to the San Yanez community, while also maintaining our policy that adoptable animals are spayed and neutered prior to adoption. The original goals included 300 spay neuter procedures, 700 vaccines and 400 adoptions.

The numbers we reviewed today give us especially strong data for surgery shelter outcomes adoptions foster care volunteer work and outreach. That support helped us keep the clinic running at a meaningful scale. From January through August of 2026, our clinic completed 425 total surgeries across 66 doctor days. Of those surgeries, 271 were for animals in our shelter care. 152 were for public pets and one was for a partner surgery.

This is the direct operational value of the grant. It helped maintain the clinical backbone that makes low-cost public service and adoption readiness possible. Every clinic day meant animals moved one step closer to health stability and adoption. The public-facing portion of this work is important because it is prevention. Through August, 152 public pets received surgery through the clinic. That's 152 opportunities to prevent unwanted litters, reduce future shelter pressures and help owners keep pets healthy and in their homes. This is especially relevant for Buellton. In the proposal we noted new affordable housing developments and the growing need for accessible veterinary care for families and seniors.

The clinic gives those pet owners a realistic option before a medical or financial issue turns into a surrender. The clinic's effect shows up in adoptions. Our proposal set a goal of 400 adoptions by the end of August 2026, we had already completed 360 adoptions which is 90% of that annual goal. Compared with the same January through August period last year, adoptions increased from 285 to 360, a 26% increase. Compared with 2024, the growth is even more dramatic.

The reason this connects back to the clinic is straightforward. Animals cannot move efficiently into adoptive homes until they are healthy, vaccinated as appropriate and surgically ready. When the clinic keeps pace, adoptions keep pace. The adoption increase matters because every completed adoption creates space for the next animal. Through August 26, the shelter data shows 506 animals entering care through transfers, owner surrenders and strays.

At the same time we maintained an average live release rate of 97.7%. That combination is important. More animals came through the system, more animals moved into homes and lifesaving remained strong. Clinic capacity is one of the reasons that is possible because medical clearance and spay neuter readiness are often the final step before adoption. The grant also created a ripple effect beyond the exam room and surgery table. Our numbers show more than 1,122 volunteer hours, 264 foster placements and 51 events or community activities through August.

Those supports multiply the value of the clinic. Fosters give animals a safe place to recover or grow, volunteers help maintain daily care, outreach connects the public to our services and to adoptable animals. Together these pieces make the clinic investment go farther and allow us to help more animals than the grant alone could have touched directly. To close this grant has done what it was intended to do. It became capacity.

It helps sustain the clinic work that keeps own pets with their families, prepares shelter animals for adoption and allows our organization to serve more animals without compromising care. Through August 2026, we can point to 425 surgeries, 360 adoptions, public pets receiving affordable surgery, more than 500 animals entering care and a strong live release rate. We are grateful for the City of Buellton's support because this investment did not stop at one line item.

It strengthened a cycle. Care leads to adoption, adoption opens space and open space lets us help the next animal in the next family.

Thank you very much. Confirming no questions from our council members who are remote?

No

questions. Any from here in the audience or here? We'll just say thank you, thank you for doing what you did. Appreciate that. Yay, pets! I know we were stalling for a bit. Okay great so we will now

Wow, that is so special. I can't believe how great it is and this is my son Jeremy, our son Jeremy and John a 30 year friend and good friend and also works in the nonprofits and Brian absolutely adored working and helping all the homeless situations and things like that and so he really gave his heart to it yeah