City Council — October 13, 2026

Good evening, welcome to the regular meeting Guadalupe City Council Tuesday October 13 6pm. Here we have roll call please.

Community participation forum, each person will be limited to a discussion of three minutes or as directed by the mayor pursuant to the provisions of the Brown Act.

the region to pursue state and federal resources as those opportunities become available. That same kind of long-term planning is happening elsewhere throughout the county. SB CAG is working with Santa Maria and the county in Caltrans on the State Route 135 comprehensive corridor study through Santa Maria and Orca. So this planning is happening countywide, and that's really what brings us back to where Guadalupe and his regional partners started 60 years ago. We work better when we work on them together People travel across our city and county lines every day to get to work, school and appointments at home. And our transportation system has to work across those boundaries too.

So on behalf of the SBCAG Board of Directors staff thank you for this recognition and being part of this partnership from the beginning and for your continued work uh to today and we look forward to what we can accomplish in the next 60 years ahead. Thank you so much.

Thank you I'm going to cut for that because it's very important.

Thank you.

I think over the last several years, there was a lot of money has come into Sandbar County regard as a result of SPCAG billion dollars fixing the roads. And a lot of it went to the South County before and thanks SPCAG and the board of directors for actually splitting that in half in terms of half the money is gonna go to South County. Half part of the money's gonna go to North County and the middle goes to the county Really appreciate that because part of the projects that actually touch Guadalupe in terms of its roads is going to be about 37 million, not including the bridge. Yeah, not including Santa Maria River Bridge. That's a lot of money in the next four years three or four years when these roads are completed these Our community is gonna stand out, it's gonna shine.

And it's up to us to benefit from that by our downtown area which needs some help and then when Pasadena comes in and that new signalization project that's gonna go in the next several years, that's really going to be a godsend to the community where the homes are gonna be built, commercial areas can be built out once that road is complete you're gonna have sidewalks on both sides, you're gonna have fence on both sides just gonna be really neat project Back in 1985, and I pulled this up many years ago where the actual railroad was starting to wanted to do something regarding the train tracks but then that dropped. When you have us when you have Caltrans folks that new ones come on they say well We're going to change that. When it came to the roundabout here that was proposed at Obispo Street, community residents didn't want that, businesses didn't want that so there's an actual signalization there.

Caltrans in support with SPCAG staff sat down at this table to say we're taking lead on this and the Southern Pacific Railroad is going to acquiesce They're giving to the SPCAG and staff and Caltrans to make this happen. So there's a lot of work to it. It's amazing how many entities just looking over a ditch, how many entities you have to touch in order to make that happen and it's been It's without SBCAG staff, and you've got some really sharp individuals on your staff that really know what they're doing. And their connections with Caltrans is a very important one. It's really significant so I really appreciate SBCAG and warn for us SBCAG and Caltrans We'd be out here and maybe a dirt road in a couple of years. But this, in a matter of three or four years, this place is gonna shine when it regarding the...

Even today you see if you go down Highway 1 to the bridge, the work that's being done for the ADA compliance, the bulb outs and then eventually street repavement and then the signalization. And that's gonna really be an asset to our community so. Do you want me to read this proclamation? You don't have

to read it.

I've been talking up good things about ICQ, but I do want a photo op so I don't know if what's appropriate. Do I come up to you or you

come to me? We'll go down here with all of us. Yes. Okay yeah. You can come on up here. Come on up

here.

Yeah yes you are. Oh okay so you have to repeat that. Did

you train her well? I

did. Thank you for making the trip. Alright, good! We'll see you tomorrow. Okay, please we're gonna fix the audio. We heard that.

Yeah I wonder if Amelia can hear me now will you text her back?

Was this not on maybe it could be that

but if they're not hearing the mayor he's is on so we heard you thank you.

Okay, all right. Okay the next proclamation is recognized in October as Filipino American History Month and let's see a lot of history for the Filipinos here I don't know if there's anybody here to receive this but i'll read it anyway because I think it's I know it's important Recognizing October 26th as Filipino American History Month, whereas the heritage of the Filipino people enriches our own culture and we welcome the history, culture and contribution of the Filipino-American community to our city state and a nation. And whereas Filipino American History Month was established in 1988 to commemorate the arrival of the first Filipinos who landed in what is now Morro Bay California on October 18th 1587.

And whereas the Philippine American National Historical Society, FANS, recognized the year 1763 as the date of the first permanent Filipino settlement in the United States in St. Malo Parish, Louisiana and whereas the California Department of Education first recognized October As Filipino American History Month in 2006, I place it on a celebration calendar while the 111th Congress of United States and California State Legislature also gave recognition.

And whereas for generations the United States of America has been fortified by the talents and efforts of its diverse residents of Filipino descent And whereas the Filipino American community continues to accomplish its goal, to foster understanding through development, promotion and preservation of Filipino values, culture and tradition. These citizens have truly made a difference in their professional and civic involvement will continue to enrich our communities far into the future. Now therefore be it resolved by the virtue of an authority vested in me as mayor on behalf of the city of Guadalupe City Council I do here proclaim the October 26th as Philippine American History Month.

So Amelia, come and pick up the proclamation so thank you all for that. Okay Okay, now we'll go to item C proclamation regarding October 26 as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Recognizing October 2026 is Breast Cancer Awareness Month whereas breast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers among women and whereas Breast Cancer Awareness Month began in 1985 As a partnership between the American Cancer Society and imperial chemical industries pharmaceuticals AstraZeneca, and whereas the emotional physical and financial burdens of breast cancer significantly impact not only patients but also their families caregivers and communities requiring comprehensive support and resources for all those affected.

And whereas the American Cancer Society continues to support vital research and educate, educate our community. And Americans about the risks of breast cancer and whereas increased breast cancer screenings increases early detection reduces deaths. Increases life expectancy, decreases late stage cancer diagnoses and increases five year survival rates. And whereas this is the opportunity for the city of Guadalupe and all the community to go pink in October to raise awareness, promote early screening and honor those affected by breast cancer. Now, therefore be it resolved that by the virtue of the authority vested in the mayor and on behalf of the City Council of the city of Guadalupe we do hereby proclaim the month of October 2026 Breast Cancer Awareness Month and ask all members of the Guadalupe community to join in this worthwhile cause to celebrate successes support those affected by breast cancer.

And remember those who have lost.

Thank you. That's very important. Yes. All right, the next proclamation. I don't know if anybody here to receive that but thanks for reading that. Proclamation we're going to recognize on October 12th 2026 as Indigenous Peoples Day. Christina?

Recognizing October 12 as Indigenous Peoples Day, whereas a city of Guadalupe is located on the ancestral lands of indigenous people who have stewarded these lands for generations. And we honor their enduring relationship with this region and where areas as Indigenous People's Day recognizes and celebrates The rich cultures, traditions, contributions and resilience of Native people past and present. And whereas California is home to more Native American tribes than any other state each with unique histories languages and cultures that continue to thrive and enrich our communities today And whereas the Central Coast region, including the land on which Guadalupe now stands is historically home to the Chumash people whose deep connections to the land water and natural resources enters and is vital part of the regions heritage.

And we're asked for many years indigenous voices and histories have been marginalized or misrepresented. And this day serves as a step towards truth healing and justice And whereas the city of Guadalupe values diversity, inclusion and equity and reaffirms its commitment to uplifting indigenous communities and preserving indigenous heritage. And whereas recognizing indigenous people they encourages reflection education and dialogue that fosters mutual respect any more accurate understanding of our shared history.

Now therefore it be resolved that by the virtue and authority of the mayor Of the city of Guadalupe do hereby proclaim October 12 as Indigenous Peoples Day.

Good. Thank you. All right, item seven. Consent calendar, the following items are presented in City Council approval without discussion as a single agenda item. In order to expedite the meeting should a council member wish to discuss or disprove an item it must be dropped from the blanket motion of approval and considered as a separate item. I have one request to speak but is there a council person that wishes to pull an item?

No.

Okay. Mayor, why don't you come up. You had a question regarding a particular item on the payment?

Good evening, Council. My name is Mary Baylor and I wanted to pull...I was surprised to see under the warrants that there was a payment to Tom Brandeberry for the Royal Theatre for a little over $6700 and I want to bring this up because the project was cancelled on July 28th and going back over my notes in January 27th of this year, the City Administrator let everyone know that he was stepping down as the Project Manager Then in March, you guys voted to have him lead the capital campaign.

You also said that there would be no financial impact at that time and if there were financial impact you would bring it back to the council to vote on. And you said that you would bring any changes to his contract, also back to the city council to vote on. It's hard to find this information. I've spent many hours on the website looking through every single agenda item, but I cannot find when it was brought back.

So I am understanding that there is obviously wrap up with the project, but I think I looked back over and in the seven months since he officially stepped down as project manager and was essentially only agreed upon by the city to run the capital campaign has been paid almost $54,000 of which there's not a lot of information for the public to see that totally accounted for every single piece of that. And my recommendation is that the council pull this item, I don't know the procedural process and that unless every council member knows exactly where every dollar of that 6700 came from that you're voting on today for a project that was canceled in July, of which he was only supposed to be running the capital campaign portion if he was doing other aspects of it That knowledge should be out there and that information should be available.

And I think it behooves everyone considering the financial state of the city to understand where $55,000 has gone in the last seven months of someone who abstainably stepped back from his role and was only supposed to be doing a capital campaign of which generously maybe $500,000 was raised we don't have that information anywhere because that's not been given to the public since the project ended I just think more information should be provided and council should know exactly where that accounting is coming from before approving another $6,700 for a project that ended quite a bit ago. So thank you so

much David and to Eli any comments on it?

Well i can speak on the contract ending or the project stopping in At the end of July, Tom was still doing the grant reconciliation with the EDA. And the invoice that is on here is his final check.

That's a close-up?

Correct. As for the rest I would have to go back through notes and give a definitive answer.

You know you keep raising your hand up there if you want to speak Come on over here.

Melanie again. Well, I just have a question for David because when Tom stepped down as project manager and then it came up that he would be campaign manager. I asked you directly after a meeting is he going to be paid for that? And you said no, he would not be paid as a campaign manager. September 18th, it says he's being paid over $6700 as a campaign manager. So you didn't, I want transparency around here- Okay so I said

he wouldn't be paid more than his contract right?

No, you said he would not be paid as a campaign manager. I said he wouldn't be

paid more than his contract because he's not gonna get paid more than his contract was already.

Okay, so people can fail or quit and they still get paid. Is that what you're saying? Or is that what the city's saying?

Unfortunately, yeah, I mean when people quit or fail, you still get paid if you worked. I mean unfortunately that's just how it is. Well, I still think there should be a reckoning. The contract ever changed to where he was only doing a capital campaign. So I agree with you, I think there needs to be more transparency. I think there's a lot that needs to happen with this but um he was still working on the project my understanding and he has to get paid for the work he did so

okay

i mean unfortunately that's just the reality you know how well then I

think there should be accountability on a great opportunity that the city did not handle well thank you

You got 10 seconds, but

okay. Our our both of our mayor candidates last night spoke about wanting stuff for youth wanting things to do for youth and economic development and you had a great opportunity with the Royal Theater to be a cornerstone for youth and people over 18 to learn You didn't shepherd it and it's gone. So just I think the whole city needs to learn lessons if we don't learn what are we here for? Well, just repeat it. So thank you.

Thanks, Melanie. I completely agree with you.

All right on that item. That's a warrant as a check been cut. We have any question from the staff and from finance, if checks been good. OK. All right. We don't need comments from you over there in the audience, please. If you want to come up and say... if you want to say something, you come up here and say it but you've already had your time to speak. And it goes back to the council in terms of is there a council member that wishes to pull an item for further discussion?

If not, is there a motion to approve the consent calendar?

A motion to approve the consent calendar.

All those in favor of the motion say aye. We need a second. I'm sorry, any second? Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion say aye.

Aye.

Any nays? All ayes. Next item is Management Reports City Administrator Mr. Trujillo.

Alright good evening Mr. Mayor, Council Members, staff and community members I'm going to begin with the public works portion. We still have the Amtrak project going on, as well as the Pioneer lift station. The engineer technician should recover $575K for the month of September in reimbursements for those projects. Maintenance department was going, um. Doing pretty good they were going through all the neighborhoods doing all the stop and hold lines.

Um, doing some tree trimming. I'm front of city hall that went kind of crazy trimmed up a lot of the bushes got everything kind of going back online. And they're currently trimming the trees around City Hall. So, they got that going on right now. There's been some repairs at Leroy and O'Connell with paint replacing door stuff. And then water and wastewater are kind of running as normal.

There was a mainline repair right out here in Highway 1 During all that construction stuff, they caught a main line. But they got that all fixed up unfortunately there was some residents impacted by that because after the repair was made. They didn't turn the water back on so 1 of those things that happens, you know, bunch of people doing all the work and then nobody remembers to turn it off. So we apologize for that.

And then there's been a couple of power failures out at the wastewater plant. But the generators have been working properly, you know they've been kicking on so that's good. The grid system is still running good. They had to replace a little sump pump that's kind of helping it but that's working out great. Thanks to that piece we got from Moor Bay that they donated to us. So, you know, that'll help us not have to hopefully dredge those ponds for a while and they've been doing brush clearing out at the overflow ponds out towards the levee area They went in there with city-owned equipment instead of trying to contract it, and they found out that they could do it themselves. So, you know, it's been good out there.

Again, with the City stuff going on, Las Mujeres, you know, it is doing pretty good. We've had some hiccups here and there but Overall, it's working out pretty great. Amtrak, you can see they got a lot of dirt work. They're putting in pavers. You can kind of see some design stuff going on if you kinda drive slow or take a peek I guess. You can kinda see how the pavers and the concrete house are gonna act. It looks like it's coming out pretty good.

So there was a new home builder law Um, AB 1621 that was signed in. I don't think it takes effect until next calendar year but that's going to make it to where local agencies can only do 2 rounds of plan checks without having justification so that'll probably speed up a little bit of review process because the plan checker won't be able to hold it Um, negligently so that'll help speed that through.

And again timelines I haven't heard any timelines shift as far as highway 1 still late December to middle of January in that time frame and still looking first week in November to Thanksgiving timeframe for Amtrak pending weather. With Royal Theater, we are still going back and forth with contractors to kind of get the final reconciliation of their costs. I think it's gonna be right around the ballpark of what we're expecting it to be so the amount of funds we'll have left will still be right around one and a half-ish million But that's still based on their closing costs.

Last week when we spoke, there were still a lot of forecasted numbers in there not solid numbers so we're supposed to meet again Friday and get some more solid info and then we'll be able to go from there. The other thing we got going is Loris College is gonna be coming to the Senior Center Uh, they're doing AI workshops starting in November. 6 to 7 PM it's going to be 4. The email said 5 weeks, but there's only 4 core states on here.

So I'm assuming it's only 4 weeks starting November 5th through December 3rd. And we're gonna have this posted in the hallway. It's got a QR code so you can register. And it's how to use AI for resumes and emails and time management kind of stuff. So, got some stuff going on. Any questions?

When did you say the Amtrak station was gonna be complete?

It's estimated November 9th but I would say by Thanksgiving.

Okay that's

what I thought you said early. It's a pending weather. Got it.

And then regarding the Royal Theater, I know you're still working with contractors and trying to figure all that. But after we figure out the game plan as our residents have asked do you think we could schedule maybe not at council maybe independently lessons learned on that so we can discuss the issues?

Yeah. So it's kind of hard to do any kind of like after action or hot wash sort of speak when you don't have all the information right You can do lessons learned so far, but you can't do lesson learned overall. And I think it's a necessity. Anytime our project fails, you want to find out why? How? You don't want to look for blame, but you want to look at how can things be different later because we do have grants that are still in the oven that are cooking right now. So we have to figure out How did we mess this one up? And how do we learn from it and how do we make it to where, you know the community doesn't have to suffer later on.

Definitely so So yes,

yes

okay thanks.

And I think, and I know that our auditors will be speaking on this. Some of the roadblocks that we had in getting to this point, in terms of the finance and looking at delays. And I'm not going to go into detail, I think Eli and the auditors will. Yeah,

I'm pretty sure if we would have audited numbers 12 months ago, I don't think this project would have kicked off. Because I think we would have found that the general fund has little to zero money and starting this project would have bankrupted the city. I think that's what we'll find. I could be wrong, I hope i'm wrong but I don't think I'm that far off.

Well lessons learned and I think the individuals who spoke today are basically significant it's true. How did we get to this point? And like you talked about hot wash where do we how do we get to that point or we don't do it again so All right, any questions of David? Jeff, I know you have a report here. Do you want to speak on this or are you good with what we've got posted? Okay.

Then we'll go to Public Director, Director of Public Safety.

Thank you Mr. Mayor, Council, staff and our community members. I apologize for getting the report now been kind of tied up. So we will get this to Juana so that we can be able to put this on the website. If I can go quickly through here just some of the things as far as public safety has been involved in, in the previous weeks or so. We've worked with outside social agency with Pathpointe. So they have three separate residential locations available for mental and homeless individuals.

We've had a slight uptick two of our Prior homeless individuals come back some come from the detox. So, some are behaving but we got at least a couple new ones. So be working with path point or whatever to see if we can find them some type of lodging that's not going to be in our public way. The e-bikes and scooter that we've been seeing throughout the city.

I've been gathering information from CHP throughout the state, California Police Chiefs Association so i'm going to provide an information only e-bike and scooter enforcement type program for uh to the City Council and already spoken had a meeting with the superintendent of Guadalupe school district so I already developed a powerpoint But the laws are already in place, but we want to be able to do it with a partnership with the Guadalupe Union School District. So maybe I'm going to be requesting for the school board to follow the Orcutt Union School District where they put a full ban of powered mobility vehicles on school grounds that way it'll assist us when we kick in our enforcement type models.

I'm part of the community corrections partnership. You have the sheriff's probation officers, a lot of different social agencies district attorney's office through AB 109, the public safety realignment at so the 13th Santa Barbara County. compliance response teams. We are allocated $5,000 to the Guadalupe Police Department and that'll be for overtime operations related to parole and probationers so we'll be setting up warrant apprehensions and searches for any parole violators or probationers. So that's money that is allocated on a yearly basis We're going to make sure that we utilize ours to make sure that individuals that are in that category are doing what they're supposed to be doing.

There's information, I think it came out our city administrator kind of shared with some of the city workers about LAFCO. Their report came out and it's nice sometimes to look at what we're doing as a police department for effectiveness clearance rates and what that is as far as for us to any law enforcement goes out make arrests and so forth citizens like to know you know if you're going to make a report What is the rate of completion of those cases, incidents that have occurred.

Everyone saw I think, I think the one Los Angeles PD had one where they think they had several years of backup of rape test kits that were years backed up. Yeah, and so that just erodes public trust. What we're seeing right now you can see there the clearance rates overall fluctuate between 2024 from a low of 2.9 to 100%. Well, the average rate is 44.6% in the county of Santa Barbara Guadalupe's PD's clearance rate for violent crimes is 71.8%. We are the highest in the county of Santa Barbara for our clearance rate for all crimes reported. For a jurisdictional comparison, clearance rates for the five years 2024 to 2020-24 We're clearing violent crimes and property crimes were at 71.8% and 13.7%, respectively, these are these clearance rates are both higher than national average national average for violent crimes is 46%.

And 16% for just property. So, for similar size jurisdiction agencies measured by this population and then you look at all for the with the overall highest clearance rates are from the city of Guadalupe and the lowest is Isla Vista. So we're at 45%. So so we're at that national level but actually for violent crimes were at 71.8%. That's something that we take a lot of pride in here in the county.

Through the public safety park security program, our camera security program citizens gave us a call that someone had been reported driving a vehicle into Los Mejeres Park onto the skating ramp. We checked the cameras. I have the officer here, it was kind of nice. I gave him the task. He enhanced it, found the license plate, did more research, found the perpetrator who lived in Santa Maria.

He went there made the actual arrest and I'm mailing a talk with our city administrator so I'll be mailing the individual a letter that he is no longer allowed to come at least for a year into the park and or he'll be arrested again. So it's nice to see all that cooperation, and we do have a positive outcome out of that. We're working with the principal from the junior high. We have the schedule for all the athletic events so she requested that if we could assist at Obispo in Maine most of the events would probably finish by 7 or 8 p.m. at night So we'll try to have officers as we possibly can. And there is a crossing guard there at night, I think one was almost hit last time. So we'll be having a presence there to try and make sure our kids get across safely.

We're still working on trying to expedite the fireworks enforcement hearings. We have gotten a lot of payments but we still have several hearings to put together. Right now we're working on revising the administrative and enforcement structure for the City Code Compliance Program since we had to eliminate that position due to the budget. So I'll be working with our city administrators, see how we're going to spread that around so that we can still do code compliance within the city.

Working with the Guadalupe Senior Center, we had to revise the senior volunteer program that we put together and that we did get a grant award. We had a meeting with the people that provided the grant to hire and employ senior citizens in the community. So I'm working with Cynthia right now to develop the exact job duties because they already have several people that they have in the pipeline so it's got to get them out Working. Guadalupe Public Safety, we have a mentorship and internship program that we've been going it's pretty much Monday through Saturday either they're calling us or they're coming into the office or we're meeting them right now we have nine middle school and junior high school participants four high school participants seven college and adult participants and we got six Guadalupe City employees I got one sitting right here who i mentor gonna be losing him eventually which is Setback of a mentorship program.

So also public safety, this last weekend on Friday and Sunday we had two separate incidents where we had ice come into town. We saw this on social media so we have the information for the family of at least one of the individuals that was stopped so we can at least be able to inform them of what occurred with their family member I was asked to meet with a canine programming representative regarding developing and delivering a canine wellness program.

I guess the Central Coast area CHP have 11 separate offices And they were interested in our canine wellness program doing here, if I would lead that and kind of put together. And then also they want to possibly look at something statewide and out of possibly out of Sacramento. So during our discussions my only thing is if we do something like that, I want to develop a Guadalupe Canine Wellness Training Center here in our city If we kind of push that through says if you're going to use.

I should say my dog and me, then I work here since so I'm not going anywhere. Let's let's build a center here. So, um, that was very positive so now we're waiting for 1 of the commissioners, I guess, to. Sit down and see how we're going to possibly hopefully make this happen. During the police chief, sheriffs and district attorneys monthly meeting we had a presentation of a new DUI alcohol awareness program aimed at middle school students so I also had a meeting with the Guadalupe Union School District Superintendent.

I discussed it it's an offshoot of the previous high school 15 minutes that was presented by a mother whose son was killed by DUI. And so I'm gonna send him some of the material, so he can look at see if this is something that we might be able to look at for our middle school students since that's where it usually starts. So before we have police officer Chris Roscoe, he's accepting employment offer with the Grover Beach Police Department so his last day is going to be Friday October 23.

And we have two additional police officers in a background hiring stages with other law enforcement departments. Matter of fact, one came in today to get his live scan for the other department that they requested. So I'll be bugging Sylvia as usual to help us to see if we can somewhat maintain at least the minimum staffing that we do have. Through Sylvia's office, we completed the interview process, the Guadalupe Fire Captain position.

So I completed the Chiefs interviews this afternoon with the candidates and hopefully make a decision before the end of the week. We just finished completing it. It's been a while going through all the paperwork, but we completed the CCW concealed carry weapon license permit process since it was pushed back to all the local agencies instead of being the sheriff.

So as soon as possible, we'll try to post that on. We've been getting a couple of requests so we'll try to put it on the website as soon as we possibly can and last public safety personnel fire police they host an ice cream social with the mayor want to talk about that later on at the Guadalupe Veterans Building to honor appreciate our Guadalupe veterans. That's my report for any questions