City Council — June 8, 2026

That's what I'll do. I'll just throw my microphone down there

Good evening and welcome to the closed session of our special section of City Council for June 8th, 2026. We're starting at 530. Roll call please.

Both items A and B are conference with labor negotiators pursuant to Government Code 54957.6, Agency Designated Representative Dave Fleischman, Assistant City Attorney. Item 2A, Employee Organization Teamsters Union Local 986. Item number 2B, Employee Organization All Unrepresented Employees.

Thank you. We will now Adjourned to closed session.

I guess.

We're back from closed session and Madam Attorney, any reportable action?

Thank you Mayor. Members of Council there is no reportable action coming out of closed session thank you

Thank you. With that, I will complete our closed session at 630 and I would like to take a two-minute health break for the team up here and we'll start in about two or three minutes. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Solvang City Council meeting for June 8th, 2026. We're beginning at 633 and roll call please.

Here. Here. Here

Here. Thank you. And a little housekeeping, please silence your phones and we'll get started here. Frank Smithen would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Thank you, Frank.

Okay, we this making it quick here tonight. We have no proclamations for this evening. We have no presentations for this evening so we're going to go straight to public communications for non-agenda consent items. Would you read that into the record for us Madam Clerk?

At this time, you may address the council on items not on the agenda and on consent. Time limit is three minutes and we will start with in-person public comments first.

Thank you. Mr. William Denzel and after him is Denise El Amin Good

evening. Yeah, I'm here to mention a few things about the Glenway apartments over just down the hill here and towards the river. Three-story buildings with a peaked roof above them, then one two-story building along Juniper Street and Glenway. Sort of almost creating what I would call Juniper Canyon. If you go down Juniper, you're going to have two very tall buildings on both sides.

And then you're going into this one single story essentially neighborhood lot of single some a few little lofts and second story partitions. 88 apartments, 138 parking spots so you're sort of with this construction you're creating sort of a combination of a canyon and then an asphalt desert now the irony of it is I go for walks down there a lot that area that Where this property is actually a lot of it's below the level of the street. And if you're standing on the street and you go straight out, the ground is below the level of the street. This area used to be a wetland.

It's been drained obviously. I'm You know, they have their camouflage and everything and their guns. And they go down there you can legally shoot the ducks down there and then they tie them to their belts and walk back to the road right there near where the apartments are going to be. But I just wanted to make a recommendation that we do need housing and maybe some more reasonably sized buildings can go there but it would be nice to sort of restore some of that habitat that's on where the culvert is and try to make it a much nicer spot, not so intense.

So that's just my comment that I wanted to make. Yeah, I think that's it. It's the birds and the animals that have habitat down there that are really impacted, and I've noticed a difference over the years. The frog noises are going down a little. There's not nearly as many waterfowl. It's impacted for various reasons but we should do our best to try to be reasonable. That's all I'm asking for, and we do have housing Thank you.

Hi, my name is Denise Ellamine and I'm here to talk about the water, well water and state water. My question to the city is that last year we received in our water bills a document that stated that you guys were switching us from state water to well water and it would be just a couple months But my water softener has gone out in my home. My water heater has gone out in my home, and the water is very hard.

And I put in a request to ask why are we not being notified when we're on well water and when we're on city water because it makes a big difference of how hard it is? And I was told in a letter that you do the best that you can to get residents the information. I'm really thinking that we need to do a little better than every time we ask a question, you say you're doing your best.

This is a small town and we should be able to notify our residents about big changes. I have a big allergy and the well water, to me it may be in my mind is making me itchy so I'm thinking it's more sulfur. So I wanted to know, or need to know who checks the well water to see what's in the well water and is it a document that you guys produced that our residents can go on to the website to see because the state water they have that. So, and also I received a letter in my water bill about our water being tested. And I don't know if it's gonna be the well water or the state water.

And I received this and I turned it in and I said that I wanted to be a participant. And was told by the city that they would be telling me the date in June. And think tomorrow is June 9th and I have not heard anything from the city So, I know you're doing your best. You always do but it would be nice if we could get a little heads up on when they're going to be testing our water so that we can be home and we can participate in this testing of water. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone on Zoom? Is there anyone else in the audience? Mr. Murphy did you have a

We publish the annual consumer confidence report on our website every year. The water testing is done multiple times a year, but we're required legally to provide that information and you can find it on the website, on the utility page I believe. It's called the Consumer Confidence Report. We also mail it to all the homes as part of the Water Bill.

Thank You Okay, I will now close it to public communications and move on to the city manager's report and advance calendar. Mr. Murphy?

Yes thank you. I have a video from our code enforcement officer Jennifer Cabello she put this video together and posted it on social media and I wanted to share with council and the community In case you're not on social media, so I'll try it and see if it works through the system of audio. But here we go. Make a liar out of me. Now it doesn't. Is that coming to the system? Okay let me use the microphone hold on

Hello everyone, my name is Jennifer. I'm the Code Enforcement Officer with the City of Solvang. Often my job is associated with regulations and enforcement but one thing I care most about is helping our community look its best and building a positive partnership with our residents. Today I am excited to introduce a new program I've created that focuses on something we can all take pride in – our yards and our neighborhood. This new program will be held biannually and it's designed to highlight and celebrate the efforts many of our residents already put into maintaining and beautifying their properties. The program is open to everyone in our community from apartment complexes, modular homes to single family homes because every property plays a role in the overall appearance and safety of Solvang.

Residents will be able to nominate themselves or even nominate a neighbor whose yard they feel deserves recognition. There will be three categories, most beautiful celebrating the outstanding visual appearance and landscaping. Most drought tolerant highlighting water wise landscaping and sustainable choices. An exceptional example of defensible space creating a landscape that protects your home while enhancing our community safety.

I also want to mention something important just because your yard might be golden instead of green doesn't mean you can't win. In our area, especially water wise landscaping is encouraged. If your yard is well maintained neatly manicured and has good defensible space you can absolutely still be in the running. This program isn't just about green grass it's about pride in your property and thoughtful care of your landscape When reviewing nominations, we'll be looking at factors such as overall visual appeal maintenance water wise landscaping choices and a festival space which is especially important for fire safety in our area.

Each spring and fall the winners. In each category, we'll receive a beautiful certificate and a yard sign along with recognition in the city newsletter and our social media pages so the entire community can celebrate their efforts. Spring contest will end May 31st and the winner will be announced the first part of June. The fall contest will end November 30th and will be announced the first part of December.

The goal of this program is simple. It's to encourage pride in our community, promote responsible landscaping and recognize the residents who go the extra mile to keep Solvang beautiful. Code enforcement isn't just about addressing problems it's about encouraging positive examples and celebrating the people who make our town such a special place to live. I'm looking forward to seeing the nominations come in and highlighting the great work many of you already are doing in your yards and neighborhoods Thank you for your time and excited to get this program started.

So Jennifer did that pretty much all on her own, she asked me if she could implement a program like that I said absolutely and she took it and ran with it so thank you Jennifer. I announced it at the last meeting I butchered the Danish pronunciation of the words I'm sure but it's an opportunity for the community to get recognized for the wonderful, beautiful work they do in the yard.

I don't have any advance calendar stuff except to say that the next council meeting will be adoption of the final budget and several things that go along with that. In July we'll only have the first meeting and the second meeting in July and August are both off the calendar, so we will be dark those weeks. And that's all I have for now.

Thank you. Any questions of the manager?

Is it pretty clear or easy how community members or residents who want to participate in this contest actually submit their self-nomination?

Yeah, I don't have all that information. I believe it's on the website on the Facebook page but you can also just send an email to Jennifer on the code enforcement email address.

Super. Thank

you. All right thank you okay if there's no questions for the manager

Government Code Section 53232.3d aka AB 1234 and government code section 84308 aka SB 1439 report out ex parte communications council comments requests.

Thank you any members like to start here with my right? Sure,

in the last couple of weeks I attended the Urban Boundary meeting where we got into some very serious discussions, had some great presentations by our staff. Also attended with the city manager, we went to the Lompoc Police Department and got a tour through their facilities and got a chance to talk with their chief. Then there was also the aquatics meeting that took place. Scott is talking about the stuff that we're going to be available for the kids, I think we've already advertising that for the swim stuff and things that are going on and That's all I did Thank you.

Would you like to follow

up? Yeah, just nothing to report other than attending the last meeting for review of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Thank you to the staff for all the work that you do and we look forward to discussing that with everybody today.

Okay good any comments?

I do but do you have any?

I was just going to sort of like mirror what Klaus said, is that I was also on the ad hoc committee for the budget. And I want to thank the staff for everything that they did and yep we get to discuss it tonight so appreciate everything you've done.

I have a few things. I also attended or visited the site visit at LPD with the other council members and a few city staff members. I participated in the second aquatics workshop to put our joint use agreement in place, and I think we came to the point where we were able to turn it over to the attorneys to do the next phase of work So we made good progress there.

And we will see use of the current aquatic facility today in the summer programs, but this plan is for the future development and the future iteration of the aquatics facility. I also was a participant in our Eastern Management Agency groundwater sustainability meeting this past week and then attended a housing regional strategy session at Vandenberg Air Force Base with all the regional leaders to understand how much growth is coming from Vandenberg and the amount of personnel that will be seeking housing in our communities between now and 2030. It's significant, and it was one of the better Lastly, I attended the first kickoff I want to make a comment on housing in general. We do need housing.

In writing is that it is a 88 unit development with 4 units of affordable housing and 113 parking spaces. They've heard different numbers around, but that's what it says on the plan. It is also We have four buildings of three story height. to imagine four three-story buildings in a condensed cluster feels very unusual, different than what we're normally experiencing across all of Solvang. So paying very close attention to that and I will say we do need housing but it just seems obvious that it could be more spread out.

And that's my comments for now.

Thank you. I was an attendant at the Ad Hoc Committee for the Urban Growth Boundary that we met on the 28th. I wanted to thank Congressman Carbajal for organizing the meeting at Vandenberg Space Force Base and for Colonel Horn for hosting the regional housing meeting that we had there Again, it was well attended and there were some good action items to come out of that. I had the pleasure of being at the Communify award dinner and our local people helping people was recognized at that award dinner as well as a couple others but they were the local ones And then I was at a grand opening for Meadow Flowers, which is in the new Founders Square facility.

And I want to give a shout out to Jennifer for her initiative and putting forth the We're on our way. Read the next one, please into the record.

Consent is for routine administrative city matters and is approved with one motion. These items are discussed only on request of council members. Members of the public were afforded an opportunity to speak during the public communications portion of this agenda.

Thank you, any concerns or modifications to the consent agenda? Any motions?

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Thank you. It's been moved and seconded for approval of the consent agenda and items. A roll call, please.

Motion passes 5-0.

Thank You Mr. Murphy I

just want to take a moment you passed it on consent the final item Adopting a general municipal election resolutions. This is obviously setting that process in motion. If you've looked at our latest newsletter, Anne Marie here did a very outstanding job about identifying the processes if you're interested in running for any of the three seats that are available on the dais going forward so And thanks, Anne Marie. I just want to again point out that the information is out there if you have any interest.

Thank you. Yes excellent job for that. Would you read number 7A please?

Public hearing to consider adoption of Resolution 26-1317, confirming and levying assessments for the Solvang Mesa Landscape & Lighting Maintenance District No. 2004-1 for fiscal year 2026-27. Thank you. Staff report please?

Good evening, Council. This evening we're bringing back the LLMD final engineering report and this was presented to council last month and this is the final version for it. The LLMD was created in 2004 for the Skip Mesa subdivision and since then It has been the mechanism for paying for routine maintenance responsibilities for the lighting and landscaping of the area.

In the staff report, we talk a little bit about some of the things that we would like to do with some of the reserves which would include repairing of the sidewalks in the LLMD maintained areas In addition to that, we did cite the municipal code related to frontage property responsibilities throughout the city and for residents who have some sidewalk damage or other Concrete damage related to LLMD trees that are maintained by the LLMD.

We encourage them to get with us and we can help them with possible removal of the roots or the trees for any improvements that they want to make for those sidewalk repairs. We intend to do a project this year, um, to do the sidewalk damage repairs and with that we could incorporate some of their items and for hopefully some economies-of-scale discounts with the contractor that the city would be doing for the LLMD.

There was a question about the maximum allowable assessment rate. We had quoted that it was $3,772 and there was a question how that could be if we were only raising it $42 to $1,472.54. And that maximum rate was based off of the original assessment value and then 5% annual increase compounding over the last 22 years. So sometimes it's not raised 5%, and there were occasions when it wasn't raised at all.

We also had a question about the 3% increase that was assessed, and I did want to let people know that that was based off of the Consumer Price Index for the state of California. And that's pretty standard to have a CPI increase for contracts. So that's one of the reasons that we did the 3% increase there. With this, there is the resolution for your approval should you wish to approve it and the assessment will be an additional, what is it?

an additional $41.88 per year on the existing assessment fee.

4183 incorporates the sidewalk repair, the capital improvement.

Yes it does because we are using reserves for those.

My question is after these repairs what are your anticipated reserve balances?

So the reserve balance will be what it's required to be, which is I believe 25% of the... Let me just get that number.

Is that a statutory amount?

Yes. Yeah, it is. Yes. Twenty-five percent of the replacement costs for the capital improvement Thank you The last time we brought this to council. Over the next year, we do plan to reassess that to make sure that our $987,000 and some change is accurate. And so we'll be reassessing that in the coming year to make sure that we have adequate reserves.

Thank you.

Yeah, quick question. What happens if we delete the reserves? If we use them all up? Are we having a contract problem here or what this code?

Well are you referring to if we used up the 25% yeah that would be I mean what would happen? I'm not sure

We obviously have to try and correct it by adjusting the annual amount to the property owners.

Right, yeah we would have to catch up essentially to be able to reestablish that 25% next year so if we used it if we were to use everything up

okay Mr. Murphy?

I just want to point out that, as Bridget just said the assessed or the approximate, not assessed value but approximate value of the infrastructure of the LLMD is just under a million dollars but it's been a number of years since that number was really evaluated So one of the things we intend to do over this next year before the next assessment is due, is to review that number and ensure that it is actually what the value is. The purpose of the reserve is if there's a Major event, a storm, a fire or something like that that causes damage to that.

That the LMD is by law required to replace it pay for that obviously there's insurance and things like that but at the end of the day you need the cash in order to be able to make those repairs So it's imperative that we have the 25%, minimum 25% as a reserve to help pay for something. Because it's not likely everything would be lost all at once, so the idea is there has been determined that 25% is the magic number to use and historically that's the number we have used. The reason it's higher now is because there was some discussion prior about adding some lighting along Skip Mesa and lighting the sign at the highway. But that was determined by a survey done of the residents that required or requested improvement so that money sat in the reserves, and we're using it up this year to do the sidewalk repairs.

And that's another point I wanted to make was, to the extent these funds are not expended it stays in the fund. By law it is not city money, it is LLMD money so it does not commingle except for the amount that the City Administration costs are added or paid for every year.

Thank you And what you're saying is that the value of those assets have gone up and so the reserves should also go up for the replacement, is what you're saying.

Once we do the assessment yeah well that's what we'll find out but there's a good chance at that number that 25% number will increase.

Thank you. Anybody else have questions for the staff or manager? Okay then I will open it up to public comment And I have a few names here. Mr. James Colton, followed by Cynthia Joyner. Mr. Colton to clarify you sent in an email earlier?

Yes, I did.

Thank you and you're gonna refer to that?

Yes

I am. Thank you.

Yes so it's already in the record

I'm told by council, I need to officially open the public hearing. We are official. Thank you.

Well good evening Mayor City Council members my name is James Colton and I'm a homeowner in the Solvang Mesa Landscape and Lighting District I'm here tonight to strongly oppose the proposed increase in our assessment for fiscal year 26-27. Our current assessment for 25-26 is $1,430. The proposed increase is 1,472 plus change may appear modest but the justification for it is not supported by the information in the staff report or the engineers report I will begin with the fiscal impact statement in the staff report. It says if assessments are not levied as proposed, it would be a loss of $248,859 and change in revenue for fiscal year 26-27.

This statement is misleading. There was no loss of revenue, that number is simply the total amount of the city would collect if the assessment is levied at the proposed rate. The City's Own Alternative section acknowledges that the city may choose not to increase the assessment and instead draw on available reserves. That means the district has reserves specifically for this purpose.

You cannot claim a loss when the city has the option to maintain services using existing funds. Next, the engineer's report states that the district faces $987,700 in potential capital replacement costs yet there is no documentation provided to support this number. There is no inventory of capital facilities, no condition assessments, no inspection reports and no breakdown of how the estimate is calculated.

Under Proposition 218 assessment must be tied to actual documented specific benefit special benefit not hypothetical or unsupported figures. The report also contains contradictory statements about the maximum assessment. It claims that the maximum assessment of 2627 is 3772 per parcel, but then states that the maximum may only be 5% per year. The report provides no calculations showing 3772 was reached, how it was reached. These statements cannot both be true and without transparent calculations the maximum assessment figure cannot be relied upon.

Finally, the district already has over $580,000 in reserves. And even without raising our assessment it will have well over $380,00 next year. The city has not demonstrated any financial necessity for an increase. There is no emergency, no documented capital need and no evidence that the current funding is insufficient. Before I close, I want to clarify a related concern that directly affects the credibility of the recommendation before you tonight. At last month's meeting staff made two statements...

I'll let you finish please.

For all these reasons, the misleading physical impact statement, undocumented 987 700,000 capital estimate, the contradictory maximum assessment numbers and the inaccurate statements about the Brightview contract. I respectfully urge the council to reject the proposed increase and maintain the current assessment rate. Thank you.

Thank You. Cynthia Joyner Followed by Denise Alameen.

Good evening Mayor, Council Members. Good job Jim! I didn't do such a deep dive as he did just from walking around the housing tract. I live at 629 Valley Oak in Skip Mesa and after the last meeting left going why are we increasing anything at all? When the work hasn't been done. That's what the big gripe was, the last meeting is that the work hasn't been done.

And some of the work that they've done, they didn't even do correctly. The weeding and the parkways, they just covered it up with mulch. They didn't really weed. And then in your discussion on the agenda in the third paragraph, it says that property owners are responsible for maintaining sidewalks, parkways. I thought the parkways were being taken care of from Brightview, not from the property owner. And then on the map that they showed, there's some properties that run along Chalk Hill in the back of these houses here.

Are those maintained by the people that live there or are they maintained by Brightview? Because some of them look really good and I know the one that does, they've actually paid somebody to come and do it And if Brightview is supposed to be taking care of those, they aren't. You can go look. It needs to be weeded. It's really bad. And then the roots from the trees. So if the roots from the trees that are pulling up the sidewalks are going to be our responsibility, I think we need to be included in what kind of trees are gonna be planted there and how they're gonna be planted. Talking to Johnny when they were planted to begin with A pipe could have been set into the tree so that the water went down, so that the roots went down and that was not done.

So that's probably why there are problems with the sidewalks the way they are. And then the checklist that is supposed to happen. Like if we could see the checklist and see things getting done, that might help so we're not here all of the time complaining. Was so appropriate that you had the lady come on about beautifying the neighborhood. When we're sitting here complaining about our neighborhood that we're having a problem with Brightview about I mean come on not OK. So I hope you guys really look at this and consider that there's a lot of people that are upset that live up there and just be more transparent about what's going on and acknowledge that what you're being told is not what's happening

Thank you. Miss Ellamine?

Hi, I'm Denise Ellamine and thank you for my neighbors for coming. I've been told that I'm the only one who complains all the time So now I guess I won't be called that anymore. I'm here because I keep hearing Randy state that we have to follow the law, the law, the law. I need to know what law he's following. I have gone to the internet and Well, let me just give you this history. My house prior to this house I lived in a city called Doherty and I had an LLMD so when I bought the house here I thought I knew everything about LLMD's because I had that house 20 years But when I get here, I'm being told that you don't follow the same, the Prop 218 that my Doherty house followed.

And but I keep hearing we have to follow a law so if you have to follow a law Does the law have a name? Does the law have a number? You just can't say, The Law. It should be Prop 218. Randy told me that he doesn't have to follow 218 because that's just for the city. I don't know what we are if we're not the city, but it does break it down into special districts also. So Prop 218 says that our fees cannot be raised without the resident's approval And it appears that, and I don't know who it is but it just appears that you guys randomly decide what the residents in Skip Mesa will have to pay. What's gonna be done? Like the sidewalks are more important than doing the fire abatement coming up the hill. I'd rather see all of that grass and all of that dirt done So that a fire doesn't come up there, I could care less about a sidewalk if a fire comes up because they have not gotten all the weeds and the dirt from coming up that hill.

But nobody's talking about the fire abatement. They're talking about trees bringing up sidewalks, and we're the only ones that they're talking about. What if a tree brings up something in another neighborhood and they don't have LLMD's then what do you do there? Follow the law or are you... I don't understand why our sidewalks with trees coming up are more important than the entire rest of the city We have anybody on zoom that wishes to speak.

Okay, seeing none I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the dais. And I think you had something...

I had a couple of comments first of all the reserves are not operational reserves they are catastrophic reserves that is why there's a 25% number there as far as Brush on the hillside on kind of the west side of Skip Mesa. Some of that is private property assigned or adjacent to the property, belonging to the adjacent property owner. Much of that also is Caltrans property So if there's a concern, Caltrans has a way to report or request service. So I've shared that website in the past. I don't have it handy but it is on our Caltrans page to be able to alert them to service needs anywhere on any state system.

Thank you. Any questions? I'd like madam attorney is it possible that you might enlighten us a little bit about prop 218 and regarding legal proceedings that we're following or not following as the case may be.

Thank You mayor yes, I'd be happy to clarify so proposition 218 has to do with levying property related assessments there's a lot of pieces to it but that's probably the most relevant to this. However, LLMDs have their own special section well they have their own regulations under the streets and highways codes with their own process there is a requirement that for every annual assessment that there be notice and a hearing given which was why we're holding a public hearing today And that all property owners have the opportunity to provide written comments and make oral comments at the meeting.

If there is a majority protest, then based on those comments, then just similar to Prop 218, it uses the same definition as Prop 218 even though it's a different process then the legislative body can't adopt the resolution affirming the increase in incestment. However, a majority protest means like more than 50% of the affected properties would have had to provide written or oral comment so I don't think we've We have met that standard tonight based on the comments that we've...

It was noticed properly. We've had three people object.

Yes.

That's not a majority?

Correct.

Okay.

That's what I'm saying, like there's a process for majority protests but we haven't had a majority of the property affected properties protest if that makes sense so that hasn't been... A majority protest has not been launched.

Thank you.

Just to be clear,

it's still has been offered please let us finish our conversations we didn't interrupt you please don't interrupt us thank you

And just to be clear for the council, because there has not been a majority of the property owners protesting on the record in written or prior written comment or oral comment then the council it's within their power under the Streets and Highways Code to proceed with levying the assessment if they if you so wish.

Yeah, the one thing I wanted to add to it was I had asked the question about what happened about the reserve. What I did not understand until Mr. Murphy made the comment is the reserves for catastrophic situations. It is not for just fixing sidewalks right? That was something I did not understand from reading any of the documentation so that was very helpful thank you

I agree, but could you give us a few examples of catastrophic conditions? Under what condition would we declare the ability to use the reserves?

Well generally speaking it's exactly that. It's a catastrophe of some sort. A fire, a mudslide, any other kinds of things that could happen. Some kind of earthquake that damages the infrastructure. Some kind of tree blight that might happen and all the trees need to be replaced. Right now there's been a concern raised about 1582, I think is the state assembly bill that talks about non-functional turf being replaced or having to replace it can't water with potable water As of right now, it does not appear it is applicable but I think that may have been an oversight on behalf of the legislature and in that LOMDs were not included in HOAs or public properties were etc. So there's still been some discussion going on with legal whether or not it applies there if that happens we had a proposal of about a million dollars to replace or remove all the turf and replace it with drought tolerant landscaping.

So those are the kinds of things that the reserve can be used for.

Cool, question on follow-up is if a tree fell over and lifted the sidewalk along its way is that considered reserve eligible?

We do budget for some maintenance issues so a single tree probably not but several yes

I'll make a comment. I feel like these folks are speaking to me because I was in the public when I was against our water rate increases, but couldn't rally enough people to protest. So most of the people who come out and speak probably are paying close attention and are representing many a large sentiment of what a cost increase means. I am highly sensitive to the fact that Brightview is being scrutinized and under pressure.

Consensus around the frustration of a portion of this contract. Having said that, the use for this particular drive of the increase at only 3% seems very practical because at the end of the day when the sidewalks are repaired and they're walkable it means the neighborhood is safe I understand the sentiment, but for me 3% is reasonable.

Also, I wanted to address a couple of things. The concerns about Brightview were heard loud and clear at the recent meeting. We've had several follow-up conversations with them and we've withheld payment for the last couple of months so they are definitely on it. I'm hearing that several things have been improved. The other thing I wanted to point out, and I said this when the concerns about Brightview were raised, they were the least expensive option.