City Council — July 28, 2026

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Guadalupe City Council, Tuesday July 28 6pm. May we have a roll call please.

I'm here Julian

public comment Mr. George Alvarez?

Good evening everybody, long time no hear over on here. A lot of concerns that I want to bring your attention. First of all is I like to know down the road corner getting our marquee back. It doesn't look like Guadalupe without our theater marquee. I realized it's in Stockton getting fixed. And like I say, I'd like to get it back as soon as possible. Um, I have concern that we don't have enough police department to take care of the city as we grow on it. I harped on it for many, many years And always the problem with finances, public safety is number one issue in a community and we've been very lucky that we have the police officer we have to do the job. And luckily low, low crime rates in the community so far on that one.

So that's another area that I want down the road The water issue. I know we got state water and whatnot on it in water goes up and up the quality of water is probably going down. That's just my opinion, I'm not a scientist or whatnot. But that's one of the problems every city is having quality water and preparing make sure we have enough to grow and develop on that part. Thank you.

Next individual, my pleasure, Amelia Villegas. Not on agenda? I'd rather you go from over there so we could separate. Okay thank you. Your exercise for the day.

As a board member of the Friends of the Guadalupe Library. First of all we want to say thank you to the city for the past how many years, providing budget to pay the rent, the annual rent for our little branch. Thank you Eli. We're fortunate at times to receive grants and we had a board meeting, our regular meeting last week. And we agreed to use a couple of those grants to give to the city for the rent. So here's a check Eli for $3500. Thank you.

And while I'm up here, may I-

Please.

May I also mention that next Thursday, August 6th we're having our first... The library is having its first, I should say the Friends of the Guadalupe Library are having our first open house. Typically the branch closes at six it's gonna remain open from six to 730. We welcome everybody to come bring your kids, bring your grandkids, bring your neighbors. We encourage people to become members of the friends The dues are partially what we use to fund the library, we provide some degree of budget to buy materials.

Books in both English and Spanish to buy DVDs, people still use DVDs. Subscriptions to magazines, furniture we bought and will soon be buying again. Chairs for the computers that are there. And so we're a volunteer group and we would like to increase our membership And so we encourage everybody to come. There will be refreshments, we will feed you. There will also be door prizes and Chief Cash has agreed to speak. He's gonna be speaking on the importance of reading and literacy. So we welcome everybody to come August 6th next Thursday six o'clock thanks.

Thank you right after Food Bank will send everybody that way so... Thank You Amelia. Next individual Miss Frances Romero Thank you. Let's see. All right,

The following items are presented for City Council approval without discussion as a single agenda item in order to expedite the meeting. Should a council member wish to discuss or disapprove an item, it must be dropped from the blanket motion of approval and considered as a separate item. A. Waive the reading in full of all ordinance and resolutions. Ordinance on the consent calendar will be adopted by the same vote cast as the first meeting unless City Council indicates otherwise. B. Ratify payment of warrants for the period ending July 3rd, 2026 and July 10th, 2026. C. Approve the minutes of the City Council regular meeting of July 14th, 2026. D, adopt on second reading ordinance number 2026-530 amending title 18 zoning ordinance of the Guadalupe Municipal Code including amendments to chapter 18.32 R-3 high density residential zoning district Chapter 18.52, Design and Development Standards.

Chapter 18.60, Off-Street Parking. And chapter 18.64, Landscape Standards. E, approve the filing of a Notice of Completion for the Guadalupe Junior High School Sidewalk Project and authorize release General engineering following this statutory 35-day lien period provided no liens are filed. F, accept report of clerical corrections to ordinance number 2026-528 adding chapter 3.34 to title three of the Guadalupe municipal code establishing a cannabis business tax.

Thank you first of all we'll go to the council is there an a council member that wishes to pull an item We have a public request to speak on 6-1, Mr. Romero?

Okay, so it was not on. All right well I'd like to speak on item B ratify payment of warrants the warrants are partly paid with sales tax dollars in order to create $100 of sales tax revenue $10,000 must be spent The City Council stipends are much larger than they were 12 years ago when I was mayor, we used to get $150 each regardless of position. That was then reduced to $142 and 50 cents a month when we decided to take the same 5% pay cut that our staff agreed to take in order to avoid layoffs.

If each council member took a $100 monthly pay cut, that would be the equivalent of $50,000 a month being spent in town. Just a thought. Item C approved minutes of 714. Number 13 consideration of street name change for Calle Cesar Chavez This item should have never been on the agenda because of the city's financial situation. While several of you engaged in significant discussion, I just wish that you'd bring that level of interest to more important matters. Leave the virtue signaling to the state and national politicians who must pontificate to appease their bases. Out of 100 notifications 24% responded 79% of the respondents did not want the name change was great to see the Guadalupe residents are in line with the average American Council culture is dangerous.

It is not up to us to determine what did or did not happen decades ago between two people. It should go without saying that we do not support violence against women in any form. Fun fact, the state of California spent $1 billion of taxpayer money to route the bullet train around Cesar Chavez's grave. You can find it online and many reputable news sources. Number 17, announcement activity.

I see that Councilwoman Villegas reported she attended a first responder program in Newport Beach. While I support education and personal development, I hope she covered the expenses out of her monthly stipend. Since Chief Cash travels about providing training perhaps he should provide local training for council members? If Councilwoman Villegas provided a written summary of what she learned or decided to share with the council, I'd like to request a copy of that because if the city is spending money on education, that information should be brought back to the council and shared with everyone if it was a worthwhile activity. Thank you.

That's okay. We're back at the council, so let's wish the council on the consent calendar.

I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar.

Second?

I'll second.

Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. All ayes. Thank you. Alright we'll go to managing reports. I'l go ahead and read that. City administrator report for July 28th 2026

David. All right, good evening Mr Mayor Council members staff and residents this month. Working with the Royal Theater. A lot of interior work still going on a lot of forming of footers, a little bit of roof demo going on. They completed the south retaining wall. Let's see, the restroom reviews have gone through and then the roof bid has been finalized. And then they're pouring next week for the interior footers for the stage.

So that's where we are on the Royal Theater as far as updates. Las Mujeres is, man it's moving along a lot of activity on the skate park by residents. A lot of concrete poured their work in irrigation doing all Timers and all that kind of stuff getting that already. The bathroom has been set, the basketball court is getting striped next week and possibly the hoop put up we might try to delay that a little bit just because we want to get that kind of set up a little bit closer to when the park actually opens or at least as long as we can to keep kind of people out Amtrak is moving along. Do I got any

questions? I know that it's been brought up in the skate park and there's no trespassing sign, is there one up now or is there...

Yeah they've been out for a couple weeks.

Have they okay all right. Any questions of David? Okay we'll go to item eight Director of Public Safety Can you read that, please?

A. Director of Public Safety Report for July 28th, 2026 B. Police Department Report for June 2026 C. Fire Department Report for June 2026 D. Code Compliance Report for June 2026 The

man's up! Welcome

Hello, right now all three of us are more we're dealing with people coming in for the firework citations. So all three of us are working together as a team getting them they're requesting hearings and explaining the process to them but that's what the majority of the three departments are doing right now as far as activity it's been a normal the medicals the parkings the parking citations but other than that it's been peaceful

How many fire citations were given, do you know?

Off the top of my head. We, the police department I believe gave 12 and then through the drone, I believe it was 22. I don't have the exact

numbers. Okay. All right that reports in their binder any questions from the council? Any questions from the public please?

Carlos, on the statistical report it says reported crimes total request for service. And this month was 423 and last month was 316. Is there any real reason that's a big jump from last month? Reported what does it say requests for service?

The majority of them is going to be the parking All the construction downtown on Guadalupe Street, we get more calls that people are parking where they're not supposed to. So we're basically showing up and making the move because of construction, the concrete, they can't continue the work because the cars are blocking. That's going to be the majority of the calls right now.

A lot of the other ones are ADUs that are causing a cluster in the neighborhoods. We're also getting calls on, they're all parking violations, 72 hour violations.

Okay, thanks.

Great, any questions? All right. We'll go to item nine human resource manager information only human resource report for the month of July 2026. Sorry, Judy I took it from you. Eight one okay all right sorry about that Eight one, you're on Spencer's

no worries. Last month, last month when chief cash shared the many meetings he attended outside of the city he also remarked that he was in Montecito potentially raising funds for the Royal Theater. I was struck by that comment because of the many unmet needs and issues within both police and fire. The city's fire rating has caused premiums to soar and many homeowners and landlords to lose their coverage, leaving them with no option but to obtain state-provided insurance that can be five times higher in cost.

Instead of fundraising for the theater, Chief Cash and the City should focus on basics first. I see the Royal Theater as a gem, but it is also like a vacation home. If you typically don't buy a vacation home, if your home is in poor structural condition. Cities Police and Fire Station located here in this building is in violation of the Essential Services Building Seismic Safety Act of 1986. This is not new news.

There are strict compliance requirements for essential services which police and fire are And specific bracing is required. If a building is in, if you're in a shared building like we are, you are not required to seismically retrofit the entire building only the fire and police areas and it's for obvious reasons. In the event of an emergency you can't have police and fire responding if their building has fallen in and is damaged The city, there are grandfathering exemptions but that exemption specifically applies to the balance of the shell. It does not apply to the police or the fire building.

I also find it sad that we have a lot of empty buildings downtown because of seismic retrofit issues yet year after year after year The city is still occupying this building. You still have your public safety responders at risk at both ends of the building, and instead we are working on a theater that guess what? If police and fire can't respond if there's an issue because their buildings aren't working in an earthquake, and we have had a sizable earthquake about 25 years ago or if there's a fire or something so I'm just saying priorities people Please think about what you're doing tonight.

Thank you. All right, now we'll go to human resource manager human resource report for the month of July 2026.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening Council, staff and community. A brief recruitment update the two maintenance worker positions that are grant funded received well over 150 applications so we've kind of sifted through that and we're getting ready to schedule those interviews in the coming weeks For finance, the analyst position. We had selected a candidate and offers has been extended in we're currently in the pre employment process.

For the accounting technician. We also, uh Security candidate and they successfully started last week with the city and are doing very well as part of our restructuring and in the city for public safety on the fire captain position is temporarily on hold, and I am waiting for further direction from chief Workers' Comp, we did have two injuries in the month of May that resulted in lost time and had another injury this month with a modified duty but we were able to accommodate that employee.

There has been no change in the two long-term workers' comp claims For training, fortunately all of our supervisors were able to participate in the free training that was offered through JPIA. They started that training I believe two weeks ago. There are eight sessions and they will complete that in November. Our plan is to have them report out to the team some of the highlights that they learned.

And then we received the updates for the premium benefit rates for next year. And the range of increase was about 6%, all the way up to 12%. And fortunately, we did budget appropriately for that open enrollment will begin in September. That is it for me unless you have questions.

Any questions? HR Director? Nope. Please.

Just a quick comment, extremely pleased to see that we're using JPA supervisor training. I've looked at the modules and they're excellent.

Yeah, I was really excited that they were all able to get in because it was first come first serve.

Great. All right, our next item is public hearing. Number 10 is the ordinance of the City of Guadalupe adding Chapter 15.17 to the Guadalupe Municipal Code regarding hydrogen fueling stations and amending various sections of Title 12. Can you read that? The rest of it?

Written Report, Larry Appel, Contract Planning Director. Recommendation that the City Council A. Receive a presentation from staff and B. Conduct a public hearing and 1. Approve a notice of exemption from CEQA for ordinance number 2026-531 and 2 introduced by title only, and waive the first reading of ordinance number 2026-531 adding chapter 15.17 to the Guadalupe Municipal Code and amending various sections of Title 12 and C continue ordinance number 2026 To the August 11th, 2026 City Council meeting for second reading and adoption.

Thank you

Mr.

Pell.

Good evening Mr. Mayor, council members Senate Bill 1418 was signed by the governor in September of 2024 which requires all 483 cities and 58 counties in the state to adopt an ordinance that creates an expedited streamlined permitting process for hydrogen fueling stations by September of 2028 The City adopted a similar ordinance in September 2023 when Section 15.16 was added to the Guadalupe Municipal Code for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations.

As written, the proposed ordinance would be implemented through the Building Department. A key feature of the ordinance is the use of a checklist that will assist applicants in determining if the project will be ministerial, meaning just approved by building staff or if it would require conditional use permit process through the planning department. That checklist is attached to your staff report this evening.

The most likely location for hydrogen fueling would be at one of our three existing stations I talked to the owners of Fast Trip Gas at the YK Market. They are not interested at all, and I emailed the other two station operators and never received a response. So at this point, I'm not thinking anyone's going to be beating down the doors for hydrogen fueling The staff report pointed out that there are only 14,000 hydrogen vehicles in all of California with 50 to 60 fueling stations. And comparing that to the 36 million vehicles that are registered in the state it's a very small segment of vehicles in the state.

In addition to the actual fueling ordinance, we need to amend parts of the zoning ordinance. This included amendments to the mixed use general commercial neighborhood commercial and general industrial zones. We're asking that you introduce the ordinance by title only waive the first reading and continue the hearing to August 11th for second reading and adoption any questions?

And so far at 634 we'll open it up to public Any comments from the public? At 6.35 we'll close the public hearing, what are the wishes of the council?

I

just want to introduce by title only and waive the first reading of the ordinance adding chapters one point 15.17 to the Guadalupe Municipal Code amending various sections of 12 and continue ordinance number 2026-531 to the August 11th meeting, 26 council meeting for the second reading of adoption. Is there a motion to that effect?

I'll make a motion on that effect. I'll second.

Any discussion? We'll have roll call please.

You can go next slide. Okay, we start there. Um, okay, so this is going to be kind of tag team. Oh, good evening Mr Mayor council members staff and local residents. So this is going to be kind of tag team by myself and Eli. He's gonna be more your numbers guy. And we have the ability to kind of work out some different scenarios. We have spreadsheets and stuff that we can kind of play with.

So essentially this first slide is kind of telling you if we continue the Royal Theater, by the end of this fiscal year, we will be $2.6 million in debt. That's negative cash flow that is negative 2.6 million dollars in the bank so we will be broke-ish 2. 6 million dollars. If we were to continue including the enterprise funds We would be plus $2.4 million, so that's adding enterprise funds into our cash flow.

That's where we would kind of fall and then you also have if you stop the Royal Theater, we would be at plus 5 point million dollars at the end of the fiscal year. And if you stop an include Enterprise Europe plus 10 million at the end of the fiscal year. Does that kind of make sense to everybody? So, okay. Next slide,

especially if

you don't

mind the enterprise fund that little bullet point down there.

Yes, so if you're adding $5 million to combine cash overall If you include it, you're getting an extra $5 million bump. And what that is, is that's restricted funds that's not supposed to be used for anything other than what the money comes in for. For example if we receive Measure A money, it can only be used for Measure A funds or purposes streets things like that right?

Water fund can only be used for water projects things like that

I have a quick question regarding that, regarding the enterprise funds. If we can't use them for anything was there a reason that we included them in the report?

So because the budget that we have been looking at has been inflated with enterprise funds so we want to give you guys what you've been seeing and then what you should have been seeing

So the budget that we've been seeing from Eli or prior to Eli? Prior.

Prior, got it thank you. If you look at the way we did the budget this year, we broke it down into two separate kind of approval processes for that purpose so that you guys can see what is actually being in general fund versus enterprise

funds. So you included the enterprise funds in this report just because previous reports that had been given to us included the enterprise funds which is why it seemed like we were in a positive cash flow but If we were to continue as is with the project, we are not because we had enterprise funds intermixed into their reporting. Correct. Got it. Thank you.

Yeah, and if I may, Mayor Council members staff members of the public. There's some nuances obviously in that everything he said is correct, I think, to add to maybe the analysis on On this, I think we have to remember that there's two parts to this one. The budget and to the cash in the bank right so the budget is not the same as cash in the bank. And so you can have cash in the bank which is combined as this shows here on the right hand side of combined cash that includes enterprise funds but it's not necessarily speaking to the budget and so that's kind of ties into what he said is We want to show that yes, while there is you know the let's call it $12 million in the bank.

It's not all general fund money.

Next slide please. Okay, so this is the perfect example of what we Yeah. That's fine. So, this slide right here demonstrates continuing construction funding only with general fund money and as you can see we go October so in two months we go negative. Right? So I think the last one Which would be September, I think we end up with $400,000. So we're essentially paying one department and depending on the department not even the whole department that's how much money will have left.

And as you see it projects a negative 3.4 at the end of this fiscal year with okay so this was the first negative in 26 or I mean in November I'm sorry But we, yeah. Because of that 400 grand October it should be about what we have left and then we proceed to dip and we don't go back up. And this is if you look the project is slated to end in March and then we start to see a spike later on in the year.

What would be important to add to this would be That finishing dollar amount in June would be compounded onto our current deficit, because we would go back into it even more. Right? So next year every action that we've been taking to try to eliminate our current deficit would get squashed and we would go back to compounding our deficit because we're not generating any additional revenue.

Any questions on that one? All right, next slide please. And again this would be the combined account using enterprise funds to again bolster our dollar amount. It keeps us in the positive but then again we still face repercussions for using restricted funds to pay for construction that it cannot be used to pay for. This here shows us our lowest point hitting 1.6 around the time that the project ends and then spiking back up afterwards. And I think on one slide it said, you know, it's about $7.6 million buffer both ways so when you go negative versus using only general funds the buffer would be combining the enterprise funds will pop you back above.

Any questions on this one? All right, next slide please. So this is what it would look like if we stop construction, right? So this is general funds only. You have a big dip right now and then you start to see progress and we stay positive the whole time. We don't increase our deficit and we continue to have an actual operating budget throughout the rest of the fiscal year.

This allows for Paying salaries, keeping lights on. Ensuring that people have public safety because we go negative they're not going to have public safety. Nobody's going to be here. I don't know that anybody here would work for furloughs or for free so this is the shining star possibly at the end of the tunnel being able to keep the city functioning and providing services to the city.

Any questions on this. Yes,

ma'am. I know we have a dip and I mean this has been discussed at length so just to clarify. We have a dip because we will have to pay some items, you know in July like there's a dip in July and then we'll pop back up essentially based on the graph. But have we taken into consideration all the things that we would need to pay back if we stop construction such as the grant that we received I mean is that is that in included in this, because did we not don't isn't Yes, yes and yes. Didn't we receive a lot of money for the project? And I just want to make sure that we've included that in this.

So for this project, we received five million dollars. OK. When it's all said and done with construction costs, we will be used about three point one three point two ish. So we're looking like one and a half million dollars we have to give back. Yes. And then with the soft costs, that's all been included and we're forecasting on unpaid invoices. You know things that have already been purchased that were just on the line for with our contract.

And that's I guess that was my next question was in all I mean all the items that from the contract that you know by ending a contract early we're taking consideration financially with this graph as well?

Yeah, and you know, and whenever we get to the spreadsheets, we can kind of show you how that forecast kind of looks a little bit. And then we'll be able to forecast what it looks like. With like adding the projected, we finally got a reimbursement through. So we could show you what it would look like adding that reimbursement and also so you see that even adding the reimbursement doesn't necessarily help us.

It just prolongs because we're still going to keep the ebbs and flows. So it's not even gonna be super great. But yeah, so this will include closeout costs associated with the project that we would still be on hold for.

And putting a roof on the building?

Not necessarily. Okay. Okay, next slide. And then again this is just the combined cash flow adding enterprise back into the picture and then continuing or stopping and then adding enterprise back into We stay positive the whole time. Everything gets paid, everybody stays happy and services are rendered to the best of our financial ability. And now I guess would be yeah there's more it just kind of goes more into like if construction continues we don't really have a funding plan Kind of make up for the last deficits that we're going to encounter.

And again, it's 1 of those things like, we can't take a grant because it's going to have the opposite effect right? You know if somebody gives us 5M dollars and it's a pay as you go. We're still stuck in the same thing like, it doesn't help anything because. The negative effect is not the receiving the grant, it's the cash flow right because we still have invoices and bills and everything to keep the city functioning.

So when those get hit. We can't afford to pay back or wait for reimbursements, because you know every month like the bills don't stop so Trying to continue this and keep everything else going all at the same time, it's not really feasible. And then if construction stops we've reconciled all the outstanding invoices. We de-moved everybody on the project. We confirm everything again with the grants Start working on how to return money if they want money back.

And then if enterprise funds are considered, this is probably the one that most people think okay well you have enterprise funds just take a loan against them but if you guys look back at how the enterprise funds were balanced they were bounced out of zero as zeros so there's no money to take a loan against right? And then when we start looking at the spreadsheet, we can kind of get more into the weeds of working off of unaudited books.

We're guessing how much money we're taking out that is enterprise. Theoretically all the money in the bank right now is enterprise.

Excuse me? I'm sorry David. Um, I was told that no one can see the slides on the live stream

I'm sorry, I can't. It's doing what it's supposed to but it's not doing what it's supposed

to. Let me try one more time otherwise I'm not nice either.

Yeah.

I

think it's still giving a black

screen.

Tell them we're

sorry.

Go ahead and continue,

please. Yeah, so we can't borrow against enterprise because enterprise is zeroed out. Right? We're utilizing all the funds that enterprises generating over the next 12 months. So the only final option would be some kind of loan. But if you look at, we have a deficit, we're going to go negative and we have a zero enterprise fund taking alone would essentially be just shooting ourselves in the foot.

So that's all I have for the slides. If you want to pull up the spreadsheet so we can run some scenarios, whatever ideas you guys may have or take public comment first or however you guys would like to do it.

Any comments from the Council?

Thank you for this thorough report. I appreciate, I met prior before council meeting and I think my questions were the same if we were going to have any financial consequences stopping that and what could they look like?

I think that the one bullet point that you have there. The next step is, if we move forward with his return with a verified project funding or termination plan that reflects council direction. So, I have will open it any questions at this point from the Council.

Testing, I thought. I find it a little odd and confusing that at one time I stood here listening to the beginning stages of the redevelopment of our theater and at that time we were discussing the probability of receiving 10 million plus for this project And we and it was included in maybe an additional 3 million. If we got through a block grant process, which was denied now here we are I'm hearing week.

We got five million so far, as I heard. And that's not enough for what's going on now on it. What's going on? Who dropped the ball? Did someone in the system drop the ball in making sure the grants are up, making sure everything is at the par, making sure to schedule payments are coming in? Because that was my understanding that we had to meet these Apparent goals to get the project done.

I'm hearing now that we're in a scenario that, wow, we might have to stop it and we might end up owing money and as it is restarting at a deficit What, three million that we owe at the backside of it plus whatever? This is embarrassing because there's a lot of people such as myself. I was looking forward to seeing that thing rebuilt. I had questions about the cost of it because at that time, that's a lot of money to be doing the project if could have been done. Now we're stuck in a quagmire trying to figure out how we can save our necks and not hurt the city from not continuing on it.