City Council — March 3, 2026

. . Yeah.

Okay at this time we'll have our Spanish interpreters please come up and introduce yourself. There you are.

Buenas noches, tenemos interpretación disponible al español si alguien prefiere. Aquí hay auriculares. Good evening we have interpretation available into Spanish if anybody prefers we have headsets over here thank you gracias.

Thank you mayor

so for the one closed session item read into the record earlier this evening there is no reportable action

Okay, at this time we will have public forum. Anybody that wishes to speak on to anything that's not on our agenda and relative to our area? Do we have any speakers?

I have no speaker slips for those of you on the zoom webinar please use raised hand icon and I will call on you. I do see April Reed please unmute yourself and you'll have three minutes

Can you hear me? I can. Okay, I just wanted to go back to my favorite topic of Kenwood Village. I know there was a meeting at the Planning Commission yesterday where four of the five members passed the plan for Shelby as I've said a gazillion times and i'm sure you're sick of hearing. I had spoken to Council Member Kiriakou quite some time ago Getting away from building on Kenwood would be to build on Shelby and it looks like that is probably going to happen.

Every time I come to one of your meetings, you kind of. Uh, say that you're going to vote the way the planning commission did. So I'm assuming that you're going to uh approve it and also it's under builder remedy so I don't know if you have much of a choice on that one um I would like to go through a little bit about why Shelby is a better choice than Kenwood to build on if we're going and traffic.

I'm sure you all know that Cathedral Oaks is a much wider street than Calgary Owl, especially where Kenwood Village was proposed. Sorry I can't undo my phone. I'm sorry, I can't do this. So they're better for emergency vehicles and buses to get through. Also there's a wildlife corridor in Shelby where you can have the animals go to the hills And there is nothing on Kenwood Village. I can go kind of on and on, but El Encanto already has a ton of buildings proposed and that includes Glen Annie and Calusa.

So I want to make sure that you guys follow your word. We'll see if you guys are as good as your word and as good as all of the comments and newspaper articles that you guys have written and commented on, at least the public will find out soon enough. So I want to make sure that you guys are able to transfer anything from Kenwood to Shelby so that you don't have to build on Kenwood anymore.

We've taken our share and we shouldn't have to do any more than is necessary,

thank you.

Thank you I

have no further speakers for public forum mayor

okay thank you okay amendments or adjustments to our agenda city manager

Thank you Madam Mayor. We don't have any adjustments tonight on your agenda but I can move into City Manager report. Two reports, you can guess what I'm going to lead with please cue it up Mr. Clerk so over the weekend and the new roundabouts on Hollister Avenue and Highway 217 were installed as part of Project Connect they were completed this past weekend on Sunday actually Temporary striping and traffic control measures are in place. And obviously there's still a lot of work to do.

This is a photo I believe taken from Highway 217, but I'm not exactly sure about that. But you can see the roundabout operating. There's two of them if you haven't been out there yet. It is kind of, I don't know if fun's the right word, but it is nice to go try them out. I've done it many, many times But just a reminder, roundabouts do improve safety and traffic flow but it might take some time for people to adapt to them and it still is a construction site. So we encourage everyone to slow down stay alert allow extra travel time safely share the road with drivers cyclists and pedestrians and Project Connect is still on track but as I said it's still a construction site out there just because the roundabouts are working they're not fully operational yet And Project Connect is not scheduled to be completely finished until spring 2027.

So there's still a fair amount of work to do. And then my second announcement is somewhat related. And Mr. Clerk, if you could queue up our website so Council might recall four weeks ago six weeks ago I can't remember at a council meeting direction was given to have a public works open house specifically geared to transportation circulation bike and ped safety etc and also thrown in there is the quality of our roads which we know is a very Hot subject because the quality of the roads really makes a difference on for the traveling public whether you're walker, cyclist, vehicle, bus. So we're moving full steam ahead this is actually on the city's website what is being shown right now we're calling it street talk and if you go to the home page and then just click on the Public Works Department this is the first thing that pops up And one of the steps we're taking as a preamble to the open house is a survey.

So the survey is now live, as you can see if you read the website, a member of the public can share their feedback, click on the online survey and fill out the survey. As I said, we're moving full steam ahead. We're looking forward to getting all the results from the survey that will help guide the manner in which we set up this open house. We already received guidance from the council at that meeting and this will only kind of shape it further.

The date, of course is April 22nd at the community center in the evening. We've also decided to add a virtual component the day after so kind of a repeat virtually for people who can't make it and again both in English and Spanish So more to come on that. We're just going to keep getting the word out between now and April 22nd, and if there's any quick questions on that, take them

now.

Can we go back to the first item? Sure. Go round, round, round around and back again. So first of all, I just want to thank the Public Works team publicly for getting these up and getting them operational. They still are in some respects temporary because there's additional work that needs to be done landscaping some pedestrian improvements and enhancements but they certainly seem to be flowing really well. I've been through them a number of times. I live right at the edge of that construction zone And it's definitely making a noticeable positive impact on the lives of a lot of people. That section of Armitos and Dearborn that is east of San Jose Creek, they're small streets but they're very densely populated and there's hundreds and hundreds of people that live there that since the 70s have never been able to make a left turn in or out of that part of town and there's no other way out if there were an emergency you can't go across San Jose Creek So you're essentially, that's your one way out.

So you've significantly improved circulation for hundreds of people and made it a lot more convenient and safe for people so thank you for that. And then I just wanted to see if we have any information on not so much the Ward roundabout which seems largely done from the pedestrian part of it but for the Dearborn roundabout that still seems to have a little bit more construction happening Do we have a general sense of when that will become a little bit more pedestrian friendly in terms of the functional crosswalks that go through there with the pedestrian shelters?

Thank you for the question, Council Member Kiriakou. So we're currently working with the contractor to improve any pedestrian infrastructure that's needed. We're also going to do a field walk this week to get any ideas for any updates. So as we work through this process, we'll make any updates needed. I don't have the schedule in front of me but we will continue to look at pedestrian access and bike access and make any improvements Council or the public may bring up to us.

Great, well thank you I'm getting lots of positive feedback in the community from people I've talked

to. We're really proud in Public Works that we were able to deliver this portion of their project so we're singing very high right now.

So this was regarding the outreach street talk And it's just a, I just wanted to sort of give you kind of a reminder or something like that. That for instance if we had a survey let's take for instance when we did the park Stowe Grove Yeah. And you're looking at the people who live and use it nearby as a park, then you're going to get a good sort of response. But if you wanted to know whether that park should be used as a park as it is or as a skateboard park for instance where people from other part of the city might be there, you might not get a good sample. You might not really recognize who is interested in And the problem is something called a selection bias. And not to get all academic, but when we have these voluntary surveys what happens is you get the people who are most enthusiastic about a particular thing.

Bicyclists for instance or people who are really impacted And the folks who are just driving through the neighborhood or driving through a street aren't the people who respond to a survey like this. And so, the results you get might not be really a good reflection of what the community at large feels. You get the people who have the greatest interest and I just want you to keep that in mind as far as the limits or the... You can get a distorted impression of what the public cares about I just wanted to kind of pass that on. You can comment or not comment, it doesn't matter.

Council Member Kasdan, I'd like to just state that the survey is a component of the full task at hand so it is important and it will inform us of certain needs that the public has but it's just a component and as we work through this street talk open house we'll have better ideas in needs of the public

Again though, the same issue arrives in any open house also. The people who are most passionate about the particular item are going to show up and the people who are sort of only tangentially or less excited and so when you come to questions about What a road should be like, should you ever add roundabouts or something like that. You'll get maybe bicyclists or something or some small group that will be very strong how they feel but others just neighbors who will not show up.

Anyway, that's all. Thank you.

I have something to add real quickly. Oh, I'm sorry. I went through it several times today and everybody is very cautious and going slow. Because they're trying to figure out what to do exactly. But I do want to let you know that at my MTD meeting this morning, they took their MTD buses out there, I guess Sunday and they were fine. They did a really good job and actually they captured it on KEYT so they showed the MTD bus going through the roundabouts. So they said thank you.

Mayor Perotti, thank you for that. It's very exciting to see all the different movements through the roundabouts.

Thank you. I just wanted to add, it's always a challenge for us to make decisions based on the information we get. I think that's a challenge for all types of public engagement. We're all doing everything and anything we can to get as much feedback from the public as possible. This is one way that we are encouraging everyone here, folks that might be tuning in live or will watch the repeat to please participate. I just clicked through the survey. It truly did take four minutes or less so it's very easy to give your input. Thank you for having the virtual option too. I know it's tough for folks to be able to make it in person to an event so having another alternative is a great way to try to capture some more folks who might just Interested on their lunch hour to tune in and hear some more and then they can give their input.

So I think, yeah, I really appreciate staff's efforts to try to have multiple ways for folks to get involved. And I mean we just graduated a full Goleta lead class so I think we do have community members that are engaged and hope will participate and give their input. So I do appreciate those efforts and then as council we can do our part Encourage residents and get the word out to share their input. So thank you.

OK, I'm not seeing anyone else with comments moving on to consent calendar.

Yes, thank you Madam Mayor. That is item A1 approval of the City Council meeting minutes of February 3rd 2026 and February 17th 2026. Item A2 ratification of mayoral appointments to the Public Engagement Commission. Item A3 acceptance of the December 2020-2025 check register. Item a4 report on interim urgency ordinance senior mobile home park overlay moratorium on conversions to All Ages Park And item A5, general plan coastal use plan 2025 progress report and finding the report is exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Thank you council wish to pull any items?

Yeah, well I heard I concur on that A5 that Council Member Carriaco called out. But the other is I'll be voting separately on A4 because I voted against that so if we could have that isolated from the other.

Okay, so A5. If you could read that into the record what we're talking about?

Yes, thank you. That's item A5 General Plan Coastal Land Use Plan 2025 Progress Report and finding the report is exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Thank you.

So I just wanted to point something out about the report and then ask a question. So I'm looking at, let's see page 72 of the General Plan Coastal Land Use Plan 2025 Progress Report and I'm looking at table four, The Housing Objectives Update. So this is basically a table of how are we progressing today on our RHNA or housing objectives? So between 2023 and 2031, the city is not responsible for but is accountable for developing 1,837 units of housing with 682 units of very low income, 324 units of low income, 370 units of moderate and 461 units of above moderate housing. And I wanted to point out our progress, because we're basically a third of the way through the RENA cycle. We've got six more years to go and we're three years in. If you can believe that, we're already three years in.

And of our 1,837 units that were allocated This past year we did 363, so that was a very good year. The prior two years 2023 and 2024 we had 21 and 38 units. So total units to date is 495 and we have 1,342 units to go. Most of our progress was in the above moderate category. We had two units to date in the moderate category, 117 units built so far and very low and 124 units built in low. My question is this.

If you just look at the total units, we're about a third of the way towards our goal and maybe a little bit further in a third of the period. But we're significantly below goal on some of the other categories like moderate and very low. And so my question is, is there anything that would need to be prepared for as we go into our reporting to state HCD in terms of feedback that we might reasonably anticipate to get?

Any kind of punitive actions that could be in the offing if we don't start making more progress on some of those other categories.

One of the ways we'll get reviewed by HCD, State Housing and Community Development will be this progress throughout the period. We'll get reassessed halfway through and really that benchmark is after next year's reporting So that's really kind of the halfway point. While 2031 is in the table, the reporting period ends like in February of 2031 so it's not going to be that full year and so one of the things they'll reassess in June of 2027 is that progress are we halfway?

I'm going to talk a little bit about SB 35. But the look at how we have progressed on meeting our lower income, which is the combination of low and very low. So the target would be $1,006. And then our above moderate with the target being $461. And kind of depending on how we are progressing towards those two metrics there may be projects that can avail themselves of streamlined processing moving forward.

The consequence there is that streamlined processing for different housing projects. I'll note, though, really because of Heritage Ridge we're more than halfway towards meeting our above moderate so we're actually on track for our above moderate so that has some significance moving forward.

So Heritage Ridge is captured in our progress to date here?

Yeah, we account for projects based on building permit issuance. So basically when construction starts on a project. So Heritage Ridge was counted this year or

in all three categories or just for the above?

In all three categories so the breakdown like in 2025 the breakdown is it's really just Heritage Ridge and ADUs. So the bulk of the units in 2025 are for Heritage Ridge okay

Based on what you know of where things are at in the planning process, do we have any other significant projects coming down the pike that would bring us a significant number of units in the low and very low category?

So I'd like to defer in large part to the rest of the planning staff so that might come up. As

opposed to advanced

planning? Yeah. We're aware. We all keep track of these things but there are quite a few projects in the pipeline The ones mentioned in the report would be the Shelby Project, which was at Planning Commission yesterday. 61 units at Kellogg Way. 46 units of 5955 Chi Rial. 16 units at 5638 Hollister. 59 units at 7360 Hollister. And then there's a lot of pending ADUs as well and we get credit for ADUs. I didn't break down the income categories on those projects because They're often in flux during the planning process, so it's hard to say what the eventual entitled numbers exactly will look like on those projects. So it'll be a fraction of those numbers. I did

see the ADUs captured in terms of the...so far in the cycle and it does look like we've had good progress with ADUs.

Yeah, we've overproduced ADUs based on our housing element estimates. So we were getting a little bit of an extra surplus as we see it. compared to what we had in the housing element because we have overproduced, I think we assumed 17.25 ADUs per year and we've overproduced every year of the cycle on that front.

Thanks. I mean, I think what this shows us is you know, we're making progress. I do feel good about the decisions we made during the housing element process. You know, we received a lot of criticism for using our existing capacity to help reach our target. It so far looks like at least in terms of housing production, to meet our target even without that existing capacity but based on the new zoning and everything.

But I do find myself a little bit concerned about our ability to hit the affordable numbers here, and so that's gonna require probably some tough decisions down the road because the alternative would be to, it sounds like lose some discretion over some of these future projects.

Yeah, in Council Member Koriakou it really depends on meeting that above moderate is significant and then whether we're meeting that lower. And currently the way the streamlining works were judged on our fifth cycle currently and we did not meet our lower income so it kind of looks like the status quo may continue in terms of which projects get streamlined under this metric. Okay all right well thank you

Council Member Kestin.

Yeah, I had in appendix E it's really an interesting map because it shows where our current affordables are the existing ones and we had it looked like about 586 in the whole city of which 468 were rentals 120 ownership It surprised me that it was a number quite as small as that. So one question I had, it said that in 2029 some were expiring. Do we know how many are expiring?

And does that count? How does HCD count that towards, you know... Does it affect our targets and so

forth? I see from our senior housing analyst, four units in 2029 would term out. So those would be projects from the county. In terms of the reporting we look at in the annual progress report, we look at new production. So I don't see how that would change Our six cycle numbers, but I think we'd have to look at it's not something we've had to report in the past. So if and when we got to that stage, I think we want to be really careful about how how we report that make sure we accurately reflecting that if need be in the report. But we haven't had to do that yet so I can't say with certainty what that would look like

okay? And I guess just a general comment that, number one, I think every single city and county throughout the state is gonna be significantly challenged to hit their targets because all we've done is zone at a certain density. The ability to come up with some tool that'll make it affordable on those sites, the state did not give us that pathway The only thing we have to get there I gather is simply whether our inclusionary policy or the bonus density that they take advantage of and any kind of diff fees that we can dedicate which isn't going to be much.

So, so I do think you know we're not alone as far as getting to those points but I, you know, to them as much as we can if there is any kind of ideas that you have on how we can increase our take of affordables, the proportion of the housing that we generate. How we can increase how much of that is going to be affordable? I would strongly welcome it. We've talked before when at the sort of remarkable scale series of events that happened at Heritage Ridge where we went from here's a property that had no requirement to come up with any kind of affordable units and a new developer came in and opted to provide us, what is it 35% or something?

How much? 30%. 30% affordables which is Remarkable, and the same developers I gather are doing something similar in Carpinteria. So if there's any ways that you can think what can get us to that? What can we do to increase that? I encourage you, I'd look forward to it. That's it, thank you.

Thank you. Council, is any other council member wanted to pull anything? I missed you, okay. Do we have any speakers?

I have no speaker slips, Madam Mayor. For those of you on the Zoom webinar who wish to speak to a consent item please use this hand icon and I will call on you. We do have Angelina DiMartini. Please unmute yourself and you'll have three minutes. Angelina are you there? Can you unmute yourself? Angelina go ahead and

start. Is it unmuted now?

Yes.

Okay is there an echo

yeah you might need to mute your speakers if there's other speakers in the room with the meeting on

no there's not

go ahead Angelina are you there

I was just trying to see if I can stop the feedback

My apologies. I think you're okay if you go ahead and speak.

Okay. Good evening Mayor and Council, thank you for the opportunity to be heard. In 2024 we have repeatedly requested of the City of Belita Council a baseline bike count for Hollister Avenue regarding the proposed street narrowing. Despite the Council's commitment to conduct this count before voting, it appears no baseline study by count was produced. Furthermore on information and belief in December of 2024 a meeting was held at the Goleta Community Center concerning the narrowing of Hollister and was not publicly posted prior As multiple council members were reportedly present, this lack of notice appears to be a Brown Act violation.

The City Council proceeded to vote on the narrowing of Hollister in January 2025 without the promised bike data produced prior to. Consequently as of January 26 there was no way to measure the project's impact on the bike usage Additionally local businesses in downtown Goleta appear to be suffering a lack of business and congestion due to the narrowing. I'm formally noting that these unfulfilled promises to produce the bite count prior to the vote has a potential economic impact on the downtown Thank you for your time and consideration.

I have no further speakers for consent.

Madam Mayor, I couldn't understand everything the speaker said because of the echo but I did catch enough of it to understand that it had to do with the re-striping to Hollister Avenue that was done a couple years ago And I would just say that we do, the council asked staff to come back with a status report on that a year ago. And that is currently scheduled for either April 7th or the second April meeting I'm seeing, April 21st.

So April 21st, staff will make a presentation about lots of statistics, similar statistics that were shown over a year ago about the flow of traffic parking utilization bike utilization, accidents et cetera. I heard some of what the speaker said and so I'm just making that point that meeting we'll do our best to allow the council to see how that striping has been going now that it's been over two years.

Thank you. I'm sorry there was an echo on that but it was very difficult to understand what she was saying. Thank you for your help on that. Okay so I am looking for a motion A1 through A4 and then we'll take A5 separately. No?

Oh, excuse me. Okay. Let's do A1, A2, A3 and

A5. Sorry about that.

course, Mayor. It is item A4, report on interim urgency ordinance, senior mobile home park overlay and moratorium on conversion to All Ages Park.

Okay. Roll call vote.

Do we need a motion?

Oh yes, we do need a motion. That would be helpful.

I'll move approval of A4. Okay,

do we have a second?

I'll second again.

Okay, roll call vote.

That's item B1, a proclamation of the City of Goleta proclaiming March 7th through 14th, 2026 as Arbor Week in the City of Goleta. Mayor and Council, sorry to interrupt did we take a vote on A5 separately? No. Okay

thank you. Yes thank you though for checking okay so we have with us tonight George Thompson Parks and Rec Parks and Open Space Manager, and Public Tree Advisory Commission Chair, Jesse Allstadt to receive this proclamation. You know the routine. Do you wanna stand over here? Okay, so we both can see it. Okay, we have a proclamation of the City Council of the city of Goleta California proclaiming March 7th through the 14th 2026 as City of Goleta Arbor Week whereas natural arbor week is a special week for the planting of trees and has been celebrated nationally and throughout the world for 154 years since 1872.

And whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce life-giving oxygen, and provide habitat for our wildlife. And whereas trees beautify our community are a renewable resource and are a source of joy and spiritual renewal And whereas, Gleaton will observe the celebration along with the state of California with planting trees.

And whereas, California State Assembly and Senate have approved Resolution ACR 10 Dickinson establishing March 7th through March 14th of each year as a California Arbor Week. The measure urges all California residents to observe the week and appreciate tree planting activities and programs, and whereas all residents are urged to celebrate Arbor Week by planting and maintaining trees to promote the well-being of this and future generations. Now therefore be it resolved that on this third day of March 2026, the City Council of the city of Goleta California does hereby proclaim March 7th through March 14th, 2026 as a city of Goleta Arbor Week and approved on this day the third day of March 2026 signed by myself Paula Perotti So if you, well congratulations first of all.

And I think probably we'll get one picture with us and then probably all of

us.

All right, here we go. Ready? One, two, tree on three. One, two, three. Awesome. Thank you.

As chair of the Public Tree Advisory Commission, I am so pleased and grateful that the city is recognizing Arbor Week. And I'm hopeful that City Council will continue to support our trees by prioritizing funds for our urban forests in the coming fiscal year. From the oxygen they make to the shade they cast and the habitat trees provide for hundreds of species of birds, dear my heart. Various mammals and insects into their sheer beauty and their perseverance throughout the decades in the sense of awe that they inspire in us. Trees are essential for human existence and for us to thrive and prosper. Thank you.

Thank you Mayor and Council for recognizing Arbor Week. It is celebrated up and down the coast in inland areas of California, and I think within Goleta everybody can agree that we love trees. The proclamation and Arbor Week typically celebrates new tree plantings, and that's certainly been the case in the past. I know, Mayor, you've participated in quite a few tree plantings over the years and those trees are doing great, as well as multiple council members coming out to tree plantings at Stowe Grove. We planted 100 trees several years ago. Elwood has been a huge focus for the city recently planting trees and with that I have just a couple stats that I wanted to share because sometimes we forget that we've planted a lot of trees over the past couple years Since October 2024, we planted 558 trees at Elwood almost entirely with volunteers.

Over a thousand people have showed up since October 2024 to help plant trees. We planted 25 trees in Old Town Goleta along Hollister Avenue and those trees are doing great. Our crews were just out there tending to them 100 trees at Stowe Grove 75 new redwoods, 25 incense cedars. And on March 14th to celebrate Arbor Week we are hoping to plant 215 more native trees at Elwood.

We invite the community to come out and celebrate with us. Our streets division crews are also focused on replanting 11 trees on Berkeley Road next week, so we're gearing up to do that. That's an exciting new work effort for our crews. Over the last several years, we have planted 1,008 trees in Goleta, and that is something to be recognized. Last but not least, I had the pleasure of inspecting 99 trees at a big commercial nursery several weeks ago that are slated for our new train station. So we've got 99 new trees going in at that facility. We're looking forward to that.

I also wanted to mention in the vein of taking care of the trees that we have, our PTAC recently reviewed five trees that were nominated by one of our commissioners Ken Knight for heritage tree status. This is the first time that's happened in our city's history. If all goes according to plan those will come to City Council at a later date but the PTAC reviewed them five trees and I just want to point out Three of those five trees are national champions, meaning they are the largest of the species in the nation. And they're right here in Goleta.

Amazing. So with that, thank you so much for recognizing Arbor Week. Every day is Arbor Day for us and public works and we just really appreciate the community support and your support Mayor and Council for this special event.

Thank you. Thank you so much for all your work. Thank you. We have several different commissions

and we don't often get the opportunity to thank our commissioners for their work. And then also to Mister Thompson that you know ongoing efforts, particularly in Elwood I ran into a parent Recently, who mentioned that they were excited to get more involved with the city and as a family they had gone out to volunteer and how rewarding that was. So just a plug if you're interested in volunteering our city staff will hook you up so thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member

Kiriakou?

I also want to thank Ms. Altstadt for her work on PTAC and also just her advocacy for trees in general in the community during projects like the San Jose Creek multimodal path project, for example. Really looking forward to all those trees that are going to get planted along the new Equal Road. That's going to be a really exciting thing for this city and I can't wait and I'm really excited too as soon as possible we'll get a lot more trees replanted along the San Jose Creek particularly the part as you get closer to, closer to the 101. There's a lot of trees that have been removed and we're looking forward to a lot more trees coming back. Thank

you. Do we have any speakers?

Madam Mayor I have no speaker slips for those of you on the zoomometer who speak to this item please use raised hand icon and I will call on you. I'm seeing none mayor. Okay

thank you. Okay,

Item B2, Tri-County Regional Energy Network 3CREN annual update.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. We're here tonight with a representative from Santa Barbara County, Garrett Wong, who's here to present to us the annual report from the Tri-County Regional Energy Network.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Murray. Good evening council members, Garrett Wong here. I am the Sustainability Division Manager for the County of Santa Barbara. I'm also a co-director for the Tri-County Regional Energy Network or as we would like to refer to it as 3CREN. I'm here tonight to present to you some highlights from our annual report and highlight some of the projects and the work that we've been doing in the city of Goleta, as well as across our territory.

And just remind the community what 3C-REN is and where they can find incentives and resources for energy efficiency, electrification, workforce development, and other resources and benefits. So for those who do follow some of the energy space, you might know that we are often confused with 3CE. That acronym stands for Central Coast Community Energy. We are 3C-REN. That stands for the Tri County Regional Energy Network.

So what is the difference? Well, 3CE is your default electricity provider. As a City Council, you opted into this program on behalf of the community. 3CE provides the residents and businesses with mostly carbon-free electricity working on getting to 100% renewable electricity by 2030. They have staff that serve the community. They also offer programming, whether it's technical assistance for member agencies or financial resources to residential and commercial customers primarily to transition to all electric either vehicles or buildings both in existing as well as new construction.

3CE REN is a slightly different entity. So we are run by local governments as well, however we only focus on energy efficiency as well as electrification programs and we're funded differently than 3CE. Next slide? So all utility rate payers, except for those that are in publicly owned utility territories like Lompoc, pay a surcharge and it's called the Public Purpose Programs Surcharge. So all utility rate payers whether it's electricity or natural gas to PG&E, SCE or SoCal Gas pay this fee. It's a very minor fee and it's collected by the public utilities commission at the state All that funding goes into what's called an energy efficiency portfolio and then it gets redistributed out to different program administrators for energy efficiency programs.

This includes the investor-owned utilities, also CCA programs can elect to become program administrators but regional energy networks which are mostly local government run can also become program administrators and receive this funding. We created a Regional Energy Network because we believe that we could do a better job at reaching our community when it comes to the incentives and the resources that energy programs should be providing, particularly hard-to-reach customers. Customers who may not speak English, customers who may not own their property to make certain energy investments, small businesses.