City Council — May 19, 2026

Thank you.

here, raise families here and contribute to the local economy. We simply want the ability to remain in the communities we help sustain. I urge the council to place tenant protections and rent stabilization on a future agenda and begin engaging directly with tenants on these issues. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

And Madam Mayor have no further public speakers for public forum?

And I will close the public comments at this time, public forum and move on to amendments or adjustments.

Thank you, Mayor. This evening, Mayor and Council, we do have one note for the council's consideration this evening. Staff has posted a notice of recommended continuance on public hearing for item C2. And so staff's recommendation is that the City Council open and continue the public hearing regarding the 2026 Development Impact Fee Program update to a date certain of July 21st, 2026. So as reflected in that posted notice if the council votes to continue the item this evening there would be no substantive consideration anticipated by the city.

That said the city may still receive public comment associated with the proposed continuance for purposes of the administrative record and in that case staff would note any public comments received as part of that continued public hearing process.

Okay, thank you. So we need to take a vote on that?

Correct and I would recommend Mayor we would ask our clerk to just confirm whether any speakers wanna speak about the proposed continuance of item C2 and then for the council to then consider a vote.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you Madam Mayor. I've not received any speaker slips for C2 and if any attendees on the webinar wish to speak to items C2 please use the raised hand feature and I will call upon you. Madam Mayor and Council, I'm seeing none.

Okay, now we'll take a vote. Somebody like to make the motion? Yeah,

I'll make a motion that we continue it until that July date.

Okay. July 26th. I'll second. 21st. July 21st! 21st, so sorry, 21st... I'll second. A roll call vote?

Thank You Madam Mayor this is the City Manager's report and I do have a few items so I'll go through those First I want to acknowledge the Supervisor and Management Academy that the City has been a part of now for, I think going on three years. Just as a reminder our Human Resources Manager I see here Jennifer Jennings was at the beginning of establishing this program it's a collaboration with Santa Barbara County, the city of Santa Barbara, the city of Carpinteria and I believe now also North County cities are also starting to contribute because I think they saw How cool the program is and it's just a great opportunity for up-and-coming supervisors, managers and execs to get a really great training. So there are three academies. There is the supervisor academy, there is the manager's academy and there is the executive academy.

And I think we now have had 12 employees go through one of those. And we just most recently had two graduates from the Supervisor Academy, so one of our deputy city clerks who I see over here David Kataya and also Kim Crail from the library I can't see if she's here, maybe not. So they both graduated earlier this week last week. It was a great event to go through graduation with them some of us were there and I just wanted to acknowledge both of them and what a great program that is.

Oh

look at that okay so you don't have to take my word for it it was a great graduation

They're smiling.

Yes they were happy to be done and again that was I think there's probably 30 people in the cohort David does that sound right? And there were you know people from Santa Barbara County, Santa Barbara City, Carpinteria and I think there was even a North County city person in there as well so just a great opportunity for them next I want to just acknowledge bike-to-work day happened last Thursday And so we did have a little event here and we beat our record last year. We had seven employees bike to work and we were going to beat that record. We had nine this year.

Yes I think we would have had a 10th but I heard That she tried to take her bike on the train and for some reason they weren't taking bikes that day. I'll get to that in a second, but it was very successful. There was also a bike-to-work event going on at the university at the same time and we did have Margie Kern grace us with her presence. She hit both the UCSB event then came over to our event so it's really nice to see folks biking to work. I don't know if we have a photo of that? We don't? Nope okay.

Next up and related to that under the umbrella of alternative transportation, I just wanted to get a plug in for the new train service. So this started two weeks ago so there are now six trains that go each direction northbound and southbound. They certainly go between Goleta and Ventura, but they go beyond that as well. And some of them go different distances. But the main point was to add a train at a time that was more conducive to people commuting, especially from Carpinteria and Ventura to businesses in Goleta.

That started two weeks ago, been a lot that has gone into that. Mayor, of course you've been following that all along and have participated in some of the decision making that got us here But several employees have given it a try. We do have employees who live in Ventura, we have employees that live in Carpinteria. Jen Jennings dropped her name again she took it twice last week she seems to be a happy customer I live in Santa Barbara and I usually drive to work but I sometimes bike to work but I did decide to try it so I'll just quickly give my experience.

I rode my bike from my house on the west side down to Santa Barbara train station It was scheduled to leave at 7 59. I had to make the reservation online no problem bike free, I got there and that train left at 759 if I got there at eight, I would have missed the train so the trains are leaving on time. I got here at 812. Disembarked, rode my bike over. No problem. There apparently is also a shuttle running so you get off the train. Jen jumps on the shuttle. The shuttle takes her pretty much right over to City Hall.

So it's working great. There's two options to go back the other way there's one that leaves at 425. Pretty good if you want to get a jump on your day Got a lot of work done, you leave an hour early. Pick up the kids get dinner your home in Ventura before 530 if you have to work late there is an option at 638 so the times are really good and I just think it's a great option when I got off the train here in Goleta I think more than 30 people got off that train so people are giving it a try for sure

So is it four in the morning and then two in the evening? You said there was

six. Yes, I didn't list the other times but they are throughout the day. There's another northbound train at 10, there's one at 12, there's one at 2, there is one at 6, there is one at 10 so that's throughout the day. Six coming, six going. Yes. Oh that's great. I just listed the ones that are best for a Goleta commuter But then the other direction, they're all throughout the day as well. All that's online and if you live in Ventura they're providing 10 free passes right now just to kind of get it going so if you live in Ventura you get ten free passes. So I wanted to get the plug-in for that try the train a couple events coming up busy week and you're gonna have a proclamation mayor here in a few minutes for public works week but it's already started Tomorrow, Wednesday May 20th from four to six over at Camino Real Marketplace.

There's going to be activities over there commemorating Public Works Week big trucks kids love the big trucks interactive games chance to meet public work professionals partner agencies so always a nice event again Public Works Week we'll have a proclamation here in a minute but the event is tomorrow at Camino Real Marketplace 4-6 Thursday have to announce it again.

May 21st 3 o'clock the splash pad grand opening I'm reading here that it's labeled as a splash tastic event

from

Kelly Hoover as we cut the ribbon for our long awaited splash pad at Johnny D Wallace neighborhood park parking is limited so get there early carpool bike. I'm not sure of the train shuttle goes there so I would not encourage that But there will be free snow cones for the first 50 attendees. So you get a snow cone and you get to get wet in these. And then finally, Blake Markham is here.

We wanted to get a lot of activity going on with the upcoming World Cup so the council might recall there was a big splurge when we had to sign a contract and get the Austrian team and there was a lot of work that went into that and then for maybe a lot of you kind of went silent but it has not gone silent I know the mayor participated on a call that of course you could speak to if But we assigned Blake to be our lead. And so he has been part of the hosting committee and meeting with some of our partners to just do the best we can, you know, have fun and enjoy the World Cup why it's here. So with that, Blake, I'll turn it over to you. He has a short presentation he'd like to share with the council in the community.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Blake Markham from our City Manager's Office as Mr. Nisbet mentioned here to share some exciting information about upcoming community activation events all related to the World Cup which will be taking place this June and July. So first of all, just a little bit on the World Cup. As we all know this is the largest sporting event in the world. It's a very exciting thing and for the first time in over three decades it's going to be taking place in North America in venues across the United States Mexico and Canada There will be visitors coming to California from all over the world to catch games in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

So there's going to be a lot of travelers in the area, including in Goleta. And our residents are gonna be fired up rooting for their own teams seeing how they do. And they'll be looking for places to join in the World Cup fun right here in Goleta. Also, we're very excited here in Goleta in particular because we're hosting Team Austria. They're going to be staying here and practicing at UCSB's Harder Stadium throughout the competition so that just adds a little bit of a local element to this global event. And as Robert mentioned back in January the council committed funds to cover our law enforcement obligations as a team base camp host city and have some community activation events. So there's an overview on the screen right now, but I'm going to go into some of the things that are coming up right here in Goleta for the World Cup.

So, last week in collaboration with Visit Santa Barbara we put on a Lunch and Learn for our local Goleta businesses. This took place over across the freeway at Captain Fatty's. And Visit Santa Barbara's team led by Kat Lopez their sales manager and Beth Olson Shared info for businesses on how they can capitalize on the World Cup. Have special events, watch parties, offer specials, World Cup trivia nights, all that kind of stuff to really take advantage of this Once in a lifetime event and make sure that people are coming out to their business to celebrate.

We had over 40 businesses represented, and I wasn't able to attend but I understand it was a great event. The session was offered in both English and Spanish courtesy of Voices Translation, and we're very grateful to Visit Santa Barbara for helping us put that on and have a good turnout so very cool thing. Next up, as I mentioned Team Austria is going to be staying here during the competition.

During June we're going to be putting up some light post banners throughout the city to welcome them and just make their stay a little bit more special. We are also going to be spotlighting them in our press releases in the Monarch Press, so here's a little taste of that here on the screen. Sharing their name, some chants and stuff like that as you can see on the light post banner we tell them to let's go lads which I will not chance the German, but that's something that their fans say when they're playing. So we're really excited that they're here. We hope that they do well. They're currently ranked 24th and I think that they have a good shot to make it pretty deep into the competition so we'll be eyeing that with interest.

On June 5th, over at Harder Stadium, UCSB will be hosting a community training session. This is part of the Hosting Authority's obligation under that contract that was signed back in January. So this is a community event It's going to be open to the public with free tickets rolled out to specific groups. So we've been collaborating with UCSB to help make that happen, and they'll be inviting local soccer clubs including AYSO, UNICO, Legends Football.

Santa Barbara Soccer Club and others to the event. We think you'll be really great. I don't off the top of my head know exact numbers, but I think that there's something like 2500 spots available. And those will be shared amongst the various groups. It's an opportunity for attendees to get to see Team Austria in action up close before they move on to the first stage of the competition. So a really cool thing there.

Council Member Carraco, did you have a quick question?

I did. Maybe it's more of a request. Would it be possible to work with Kelly Hoover and her team to see if we could get some signage out about the community training session? I know there are so many different events and the watch parties at the community center looks really cool but I think particularly in Old Town, I think it would be incredibly meaningful if there were some A-frame signs that really spotlighted this as a way Thank you.

If possible, that would be great.

Yes, thank you Councilmember Kuriakow.

Yeah where do we pick up our free tickets for the event?

So UCSB is currently working on getting those distributed and they'll have more info rolling out as the event arrives.

Only the mayor gets to go.

Next up, throughout June and July as a way to kind of spread the World Cup excitement and get people to engage with our play aspect of Live, Work & Play, we're going to be running Go play on Goleta, Summer Scavenger Hunt. We'll be distributing information about this at some of our World Cup-themed events. Basically the premise is that you'll take a little soccer ball cutout that says Live Work Play on it and you'll take selfies around the city based on prompts of places that you like to go and play, like your favorite park or your favorite summertime activity.

They'll turn those in and then they get a prize at the end And more info on that will be handed out at all of our World Cup themed events. We hope that helps people come out to those and participate. Speaking of, on June 12th we will be hosting a watch party over at the community center. So this is going to be a free event. The World Cup starts on June 11th and so we want to kick off the festivities with Team USA's first game against Team Paraguay.

That will be at 6pm kickoff so doors will open at 5.30pm. We'll have a live stream of the game in the auditorium, along with family-friendly activities and free food from a local food truck vendor while supplies last. So we hope people show up and attend. We are already advertising this through all our various venues, and we hope that people come out.

I

can wait until you're done. I think we're all excited.

If you missed that first watch party, we'll have the Meet Me in Old Town events on June 17th and 24th to tie these into the World Cup. We're working with the South Coast Chamber of Commerce To put these on, they're going to be block party style events once again. It will be held at the Community West Bank parking lot and on Pine Avenue right there. Activities are going to include tables from local vendors, live music and we'll also be playing live streams of the games that are happening concurrently so that's Uzbekistan versus Colombia for the first one.

And then Team Mexico versus a team that is yet to be determined by the competition. So again, just another opportunity for folks to come out and enjoy the block party atmosphere in Old Town. Catch a live stream of the game and then head off and enjoy Old Town on their own! Finally, we're planning another tentative watch party. We're eyeing potentially doing it for the World Cup Final which is on the 19th of July and we'd host that once again at the GCC.

We're not sure if that will be the one that people are most excited about. Obviously, the final is like the biggest one but we may shoot for one of the semifinals depending on how things shake out with the teams. So we're keeping it a little loose right now and we'll get more details on that as things get finalized. And with that, that concludes my presentation. Is there

anything else? Thank you. It's exciting. Council Member Reyes-Martin.

Thank you. Well, that is the best part of the whole agenda tonight. Thank you so much. That's really exciting. One quick comment before, well I guess both are comments. I don't know if we had reported out before but the team Austria when they came a few weeks ago now to do their tour visit, I had the chance to meet with them and just kind of welcome them to Goleta. They could not be more excited to get to train here and be here for this part. I mean I couldn't believe how Grateful they were, how excited they were to be here. The whole time I spent with them they talked about how friendly our community was, how welcoming.

They were truly blown away so I'm really glad that we'll continue that hospitality with them and it was really nice to get to meet them when they were here. And I'm going to echo Councilmember Kiriakou's comment about getting the word out on that community training session. There are so many kids in our community that are soccer or football loving kids who are not part of a club, so making sure that they know about it and have the opportunity to participate would also be just really really fun and fantastic.

I'm excited. Thank you. promised or hoped to promise to the community that there would be a watch, a day where they could watch them train. And they've come through on promises that they've committed to and they are. They're incredible wonderful people to work with. They're friendly. They're professional and they have a good feeling about Goleta and I really look forward to all the events. It's going to be really fun. Okay thank you for that.

Are you done with all your reporting? I am, Madam Mayor. Thank you for that. I will say one quick thing. The mayor's ride was on, what day was that? I had it in my calendar. It was like the week before bike to work day but And the three mayors participated. It was Mayor from Carpinteria, City Santa Barbara and Goleta myself. And we had a ride along the new MoDoc path and then into Santa Barbara and some side streets that really are promoting bicycle safety in the city of Santa Barbara and it was very well attended. It was really fun and the mayors had to sit, well they didn't have to but they chose to sit in the rickshaws where somebody's pedaling us and the woman that was with me older woman she was maybe in her 80s 90s She was so full of stories and it was just such an incredible event.

The business is called Cycling Without Age, and they provide this service to seniors in our community to get them out into the area on a rickshaw. So it's just a plug-in for them that was just a wonderful experience and a lot of fun. Thank you. Okay, so moving on to our consent calendar.

Yes thank you Mayor. That takes us to item A1 Approval of the City Council Meeting Minutes of May 5th 2026. A2 Fiscal Year 2025-26 Third Quarter Financial Review. A3 Short Term Vacation Rental Ordinance Amendments. Conduct second reading by title only and adopt ordinance 26 next in line entitled In Ordinance of the City Council of the city of Goleta California Amending Chapter 5.08, short-term vacation rentals of the Goleta Municipal Code and finding the amendments to be statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act under CEQA Guidelines 15060, 15061 and 15378 case number 25-0006-ORD.

Item A4, Amendment Number 7 to Professional Design Services Agreement with Flowers & Associates Inc for Capital Improvements at the Goleta Community Center. Item A5, Public Works Professional Services Amendments with UCSB, Rincon Consultants Inc., Dewberry Engineers Inc., Mark Thomas & Company Inc. and Authorized Budget Appropriation. Item A6, Resolution Adopting a List of Projects for Fiscal Year 2026 and 2027 Funded by Senate Bill 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act.

Item A7, Public Works Professional Services Amendments with DKS Associates Inc. and MNS Engineers Inc. And A8, proposed capital improvement program grant opportunities.

Thank you. Council wish to pull any item from

consent? A3 just for a comment.

A3 okay. Any other items? Okay I'd like to make your comments and we'll make a motion. Oh sure.

I just want to acknowledge that both right Like the day of the hearing and then subsequent days I received some really, I think all of us received some really thoughtful comment letters that were talking about short-term rentals and providing some scenarios and some examples that you don't always think of. And I just really wanted to appreciate Those letters and just acknowledge that yes, while the issue of how to best preserve our housing stock and make sure we're meeting our community's housing needs is an important conversation to have. An important thing to strive for and achieve.

I do appreciate having acknowledged for me that there are some nuances to it. That it's not just a simple issue. There's not really a one size fit all approach to this issue And while I'm not planning on making a motion today to try and undo the years of work that went into crafting what we adopted, I do want people to know that I'm going to be thinking about those comments and thinking about some of those suggestions.

As we start to go towards implementation, I'm going to be watching very closely and thinking about some of these experiences and some of these stories and thinking very carefully about those. And requesting updates from staff on how things are going with implementation. You know, and from my perspective if it needs to be adjusted down the road that's something I'd be very open to. So I just wanted to make sure I acknowledged that while we got some of these comments like right at the deadline, the day of the meeting or a little bit after, I didn't want people to think that they weren't reviewed, they weren't seen, they weren't listened to and they were very much appreciated. Thank you.

Okay, any speakers for any of the items?

Yes thank you Madam Mayor. I've received three speaker slips for item A3 and we do have one speaker on the Zoom webinar, two in fact. Speaking first I'll have Michael Becchio and you'll have three minutes.

Could you read the item so people know what they're speaking

to? Yes of course that is item A 3 short-term vacation rental ordinance amendments.

Good evening, Mayor Parodi and council members. Thank you Council Member Kiriakou for what you just acknowledged. I do understand this is the second reading on item A3 and just to be clear, I'm not here asking this council to start over by any means. I'm simply asking you to consider one narrow refinement or a brief postponement for further refinement before final adoption.

I absolutely agree with the city's broader goals around protecting housing, preventing speculative or corporate overconversion of residential homes, enforcement against illegal operators and preserving neighborhood quality of life. And I want you to hear that I love this city and I too want its best. Those are important goals, all of these and I support them.

But I also want to respectfully ask the council not to let the urgency around this issue erase discernment or inadvertently flatten the nuance. The handful of already licensed taxpaying accountable operators currently working within the city's framework are not the primary issue that council is trying to solve. The city's own numbers have suggested that legal STRs represent well under 1% of Goleta's housing stock.

These operators are visible, regulated, compliant and already known to the city. They followed the city's processes from the beginning Thank you very much. I believe GLETA can absolutely move forward with stronger protections on future STR growth, enforcement against illegal operators and safeguards against speculative conversion while still preserving a very small tightly regulated and accountable legacy category for the handful of lawful operators already in good standing.

Hotels and inns meet many important needs but not all of them. There's families visiting UCSB students, people for medical procedures visiting temporary workers, visiting relatives etc. They often rely on the unique kind of lodging that a small supply of lawful short-term rentals provides and I truly believe it is in Goleta's best interest not only to protect housing But to also preserve a very limited and carefully regulated supply of lawful, full-time short term rentals that continue serving legitimate community and visitor needs.

and not unilaterally restrict this small handful to the 120-day limitation. I respectfully ask the Council to please consider preserving a narrow and accountable legacy category for these handful of existing operators in good standing, or to briefly postpone final adoption so these distinctions can be more carefully considered. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. Speaking next, Idris followed by Daniel Zia. You'll have three minutes. Thank you.

Good evening. And it is nuanced for sure. My name is Idris Hepp and I'm a member of the board of directors of Eastport Village Homeowners Association, a nine unit residential condominium community here in Goleta. My written comment letter has been submitted into the record. I want to use my time tonight to speak about what we stand on in this ordinance and to ask for something it does not currently address.

We want to be transparent, we support the direction of this ordinance. These are meaningful steps but none of them address our situation. We are here to ask for something separate and complementary that closes a gap this ordinance leaves open. For several years, one owner in our HOA has been operating a short-term rental in direct violation of our CC&Rs which clearly prohibit rentals of less than 30 days.

They were notified and they continued. We posted physical notices on our common property and they continued. When we discovered that they had obtained a city business license We contacted the City and learned something troubling. They were required to notify their neighbors before a license could be granted. They told the City they had done so, they had not. Not one owner or resident in our HOA received any such notice.

When we reported this to the City, we were told enforcement was our problem. For a 9-unit HOA that means litigation costs that could consume significant portion of our annual budget, money that should go to maintaining our shared property. This ordinance as written does not change any of that. They are individual, not corporation. They may well stay under 120 nights.

This three-strike provision tracks city violations, not CC&R violations. The notification gap that allowed this license to be issued in the first place remains open. Our CC&RS are a binding private contract. Every owner in our HOA including the one at issue agreed to those terms when they purchased their home. When the city issues them a license, it doesn't legally override the CC&Rs. But it gives them a city-sanctioned credential to make our positions harder.

This costs the city almost nothing to implement. It simply ensures the city is not issuing a business license that enables someone to breach a legal agreement. Please require the STR license applicants to certify in writing that operating a short-term rental does not violate the HOA's CCNRs or governing documents, and establish that a documented written violation notice from an HOA board is grounds for license review, suspension, or renewal. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Speaking next, Daniel Zia followed by Libertad Kadatz on Zoom.

Good evening, thank you so much council members. First of all for your sacrifice, your time, your intentionality in putting together this really important ordinance. For those who don't know me my name is Daniel Zia I own a real estate team here in town and we've helped over 1200 people buy and sell homes and many of those in Goleta. So you can imagine we've had literally thousands and thousands of conversation about property ownership and all a lot of these nuanced issues about long-term rentals and short-term rentals both. So my context today has been shared from that perspective In addition, my wife and I own a short-term rental here in Goleta. We are not a large corporation we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of our own savings saved up over many years and countless amount of times to develop a meaningful alternative for short-term rental housing and it is much appreciated by our neighborhood.

We are one of the top rated Airbnbs. We have never had a single noise complaint. We employ numerous individuals residents here in Goleta including youth that are learning Good business skills and standards of cleanliness and operating that are just important life skills for them personally. My request is that you would either extend the vote and defer the vote or you'd consider some strategic amendments to the current policies The first would be, as it's been shared here this evening that you would consider a legacy grandfathered in provision where those of us good operators that have been operating with integrity abiding by all of the city's policies and that made decisions that affect our financial future years ago based on these policies.