City Council — July 13, 2026

Good afternoon and welcome to the closed session of the City Council meeting of July 13, 2026. Roll call please. We're starting at 5 p.m.

thank you

Thank you Chelsea. Okay, before we begin would you read it into the record please? Madam Clerk.

Now is a time for public communications on closed session anyone wishing to speak to the council may address them at this time

And I don't see any hands up in Zoom, and we don't have any speakers in the audience. So we will now recess to closed session.

Conference with real property negotiators pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8, Property 320 Alsall Mesa Road Solvang California APN 139-490-075 Agency Negotiator Randy Murphy City Manager Negotiating Parties Solvang Properties LLC excuse me Agency Negotiator Randy Murphy, City Manager. Negotiating Parties Solvang Properties LLC under negotiation both price and terms.

Item 2B Conference with Real Property Negotiators Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8. Property 478 Fourth Place Solvange California APN 139173014 Agency negotiator Randy Murphy, City Manager. Negotiating parties CRA Solvang RELLC under negotiation both price and terms. Item 2C conference with labor negotiations pursuant to government code section 54957.6 Agency Designated Representative Chelsea O'Sullivan, City Attorney.

Unrepresented Employees, City Manager. Item 2D, Conference with Labor Negotiators. Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.6, Agency Designated Representative Chelsea O'sullivan, City Attorney. Employee Organization Teamsters Union Local 986. Item 2e, conference with labor negotiators pursuant to government code section 54957.6 agency representative Chelsea O'Sullivan city attorney employee organization all unrepresented employees

We're back from our recess for closed session and I'm going to ask Madam Attorney if there's any recordable action.

Thank you Mayor, there are no reportable actions for items 2a b c d or e.

Thank you very much then we are adjourned in for the closed session at 6 o 4 Good evening everyone and welcome to the Solvang City Council meeting of July 13, 2026. We're beginning at 630 this afternoon. Please silence your phones or turn them off while we have our meeting and roll call please.

Yes, thank you. So recently this spring the city had started a program known as, and I'm gonna butcher this and I'm sorry I speak Spanish, Det Gladden Hav for the Golden Garden Certificates. And so we called out for nominations for property. So the point of this is to recognize threefold. One is recognized property owners within the City of Solvang who go above and beyond to give a great curb appeal to their properties in which help beautify the streets and beautify our neighborhoods. The second one is actually a little bit more nuanced, it's to promote cleaning up your yard and being fire wise and fire safe so we figured this would be a great program to get residents involved in sprucing up their properties but also at the same time acknowledging that We do live in fire country and we do need, property owners do need to help and assist in sort of helping as much as they can to prevent wildfires on their property by maintaining their property and adding things like defensible space etc.

So we have three categories that we called for nominations. We had city staff, particularly Jennifer in our code compliance department along with other staff members from parks and rec go out to properties and then we had one rollout with the fire department so these three properties are based on three categories the first one being the most beautiful garden most drought tolerant garden so again recognizing that live in a not only need to wildfire prone area but also water tends to be a big thing and so native plants we have most tolerant garden. And finally, exceptional example of defensible space. And so based on these three categories we do have three winners which we have certificates for as well as yard signs for and so we want to present those.

First I wanna introduce the most beautiful garden award and that goes to, and I apologize if I butcher your last name, Jefferson Woodsey and Bruce Cleveland located at 1735 Vygard Drive and we present them in recognition creating exceptionally beautiful landscape that enriches our community through outstanding design, color, care and pride of ownership. And so their dedication inspires neighbors in enhanced beauty for all of Solvang to enjoy.

The second award for the most drought-tolerant garden goes to Mr. and Mrs. Clullen, and they're located at 1571 Mountain View Drive. And this was actually nominated by one of our staff members as they used that path to walk around the neighborhood, and I've actually passed by there as well on a couple walks with them so it is very much a beautiful garden. So we present this in recognition of outstanding waterwise landscaping that demonstrates innovation, sustainability, and environmental stewardship. And so the beautiful drought tolerant garden serves an inspiring example of conserving our natural resources while enhancing our community and showing that drought tolerant isn't that bad after all.

And so finally, the last award is for exceptional example at defensible space. And this goes to Mr. John Paul Demure. And he's located at 1732 Vygard Drive. And this was nominated by the city as well, and as we noted wood piles were away from the home. The hillside has been cleared not many if any plants are close to the house that are not fire safe or tall and lots of defensible space and all the way around where we could see the home and this was noted by Santa Barbara County Fire Department So we present that award in recognition to his exemplary commitment to wildfire preparedness through the creation and maintenance of our standing defensible space which is very much key to wildfire preparedness, and his efforts help protect the home.

in strengthening our community resilience and demonstrate responsible stewardship of our shared environment. So we want to present certificates to all three of these homeowners, and we're going to run this program twice a year so we're looking to do this again in fall and hopefully get more nominations as city staff will rotate to do the judging but I want to congratulate all three of these homeowners for being exemplary examples for the first set of our Golden Garden Certificates

Thank you. Would you bring up the

winners?

Winners, come on up.

If we can take a quick photo with the council that would be greatly appreciated so that way we can post this on our newsletter. Does Jennifer want to say anything as part of this?

Thank you.

What? Oh yeah, I'll grab the signs.

Thank you so much. Oh, here's your sign.

I'll squeeze

in right here. Yes.

Again, thank you all so much.

We're going after

their

award.

Rafael, thank you. That was fun. I appreciate you and Jennifer putting all that together. And congratulations to our winners. You may. And I'm told that those signs are code compliant, so you're safe. Well thank you. Thank you. Okay now we're going to move on to public communications would you like to read that into record please?

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 comment first.

Thank you. Do I have any slips? Don't have any slips. We do have a volunteer to speak

Good evening Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers. I asked Randy if I can come up and give you guys a couple quick updates during public comment. We recently completed a comprehensive and collaborative review of seven proposals for the next water and wastewater rate study. Reviewing all the rates we selected a candidate and were going to be entering into an agreement with LT Municipal Consultants that will be completing the next rate study. With that being said, we will be forming the Utility Rate Review Committee, the URC committee?

And we've had two council members who have volunteered to sit on that committee, and we've received a couple inquiries so far. But I just want to let the public know that the letters out there, it's on our website, it's posted on our social media sites as well. It's a survey. Submit your results. Please send them in. Let everyone in the community that you know of or anyone who is interested to please submit their surveys and we'll hopefully make a selection by the end of the month for that committee

Thank you. Is there anyone on Zoom that wishes to speak? I want to make a public announcement that last meeting it was brought to my attention that I would look at the screen and say, well there's nobody on Zoom. I should have said there's nobody that wants to talk on Zoom.

Thank you Mr. Mayor, I had a few things I wanted to point out. First of all if you missed the announcement the State of the City will be here in town on August 27th that's a Thursday from 11 to 1 p.m., and we will have a comprehensive review of all of the city departments it might be some juggling I'm not sure yet but we're looking for some entertainment Oh, I also neglected this but I was meant to lead with Happy New Year. It's a new fiscal year so it's a happy new fiscal year so I wanted to share that. Also in conversation with City Manager from Buelton there are a number of items of mutual concern so we're looking to have a joint council meeting with Buelton And Solvang here in the not-too-distant future working out logistics, but I wanted to make that announcement as well.

So there will be some time here in the next couple of months. I hope to be able to get that together and That's all I have for now okay. Thank you very much

Any questions of the manager? Okay, I guess you got off on that one. Would you read the next item 5 into the record please?

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

Thank You Who'd like to lead us off, Ms. Smith?

I have two things. The first one is really not like a formal meeting I went to or anything, but I just wanted to let everybody know that I did have the opportunity to go to the memorial, the celebration of life for Susan Williams who has been such a major contributor to this community and I want to thank the Grassini family and specifically Katie and Dean who hosted it It was a beautiful venue. It was amazing. There were so many people there, we stayed way too late. We all spoke and we all had so many things to say and we cried and we hugged and we loved. And I just am so grateful to the Williams family because they have done so much for this community. And absolutely delighted to go to Music in the Park and see that it is Susan William's Music in the Park cause she made that happen.

That's just something I wanted to say. And I know the mayor was there, and I know Mark you were there so I don't know who else was there if I missed you but that was just a tremendous opportunity for us to all just really embrace and appreciate what she has done for this community. On the official note, I did have the opportunity to go tour the Lompoc Police Department with Randy Murphy and it was wonderful. It just really learned a lot about what they're doing out there and it was thorough. We were there for two I really appreciate the opportunity we had to go see that and what he was giving us.

Thank you. Ms. Verona?

Yes, I did also have the opportunity to tour the Lompoc Police Department. I thank Chief Martin for taking the time to show us a little bit of what they do. I'd be interested in doing a drive-by, ride along, see... No, different. Right along, see how it is outside of the headquarters as opposed to the nice AC offices in the headquarters. And I also want to thank everybody that made the 4th of July festival and parade and fireworks show possible. It was a great time. It's always wonderful to see our community come and celebrate.

And that's all I have for now.

Thank you. Mr. Alphonte? Thank you, as was mentioned I did go to Susan's memorial and the Grissini family did a great job that's a beautiful facility of theirs also went to the Lompoc City Council with our city manager to listen to Kevin the Lompoc police chief make his presentation to the City Council the Lombok City Council about the opportunity to share police functions with Buellton and Solvang and Lompoc.

This is also a chance to put in some requests, I'd like to put in a couple. We're gonna talk a little bit later about the CIP which is amazing. I believe Bridget can handle all of this. It's a lot, but what we don't have is what have we done since the last time it was reported? What's been accomplished? What did it cost us? What we have is all the list of projects and some of them are so far out they don't even have a year in front of them or money per year in them. But I would appreciate being able to see some of the projects that have been completed and what we've spent on them.

That's it. Thank you.

Okay, I'm going to do this as best as I can chronologically. On the 23rd, I was on a Chamber of Commerce Zoom for the Modern Storefront program that they provided via Zoom. Then on the 25th, I was at an SB SCAG meeting, as well as APCD, Air Pollution Control District. And we went over the next year's budget and the programs that there are a lot of grant and incentive programs that aren't being utilized. And I highly recommend that folks that have anything to do with clean air and minimal resources would engage with that, those opportunities exist.

I wanted to let you know that on the 26th, I was at the Williams Celebration of Life. And I will tell you that there's very little doubt that she was a very formidable woman here in the Valley. So much appreciated the Grissinis and others that prepared that. Memorial. Music in the Park was at their July 1st event, celebrating my grandson's birthday and then we had a UBEC meeting on the 2nd of July That was our last formal meeting.

Now the staff is going to prepare a report of the findings and make recommendations in a draft form that the individual committee members will review and edit before we have it back to the council. On the fourth, I want to congratulate the Public Works and the Rotary and our Parks and Recreation Department for a wonderful non-eventful if you will parade and fireworks. It went off very well.

Got a lot of compliments on those. The parade and all of it. Somebody said it was the longest parade that they can remember But maybe it's just short memory. I don't know. Anyway, then I was at the mixer for the econ alliance on the 8th in Santa Maria meeting their new they have a new CEO and I met with him and his team And then on the 11th, the Vikings put on the Viking Row for the Norwegian support of the Norwegian team who unfortunately lost the same day and was eliminated. But it was a fun event and I think it got a lot of views throughout the And it represented Solvang well, even though Norway and Denmark are not the same but they're friendly neighbors.

And then on the for tomorrow for the 14th I want to be the first to wish Anna Marie a very happy birthday and many many more that's one more lap around the sun well done congratulations on that That's all I had for my reports. And then

Consent is for routine administrative city matters and as 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. Okay, do we have any volunteers or suggestions?

Sure. I'll make a motion that we approve the consent agenda with adjustments to the order of the agenda by removing 8B as in Baker and 8D as in Delta.

Okay. All right, it's been moved and seconded to approve item six agenda. Excuse me with the exception of A with modifications eliminating a item 8B as in Baker and 8D is in Delta. Roll call please

motion passes 4-0.

Thank you okay we have a item number seven a public hearing for would you like to read it in the record for us please

Public hearing to consider adoption of Resolution 26-1325, updating user and regulatory fees for various city services.

Is there a late

charge?

Yeah, it's on. All right so May 26 City Council meeting the city council adopted the first city fee schedule that included the CPI cost of increase with that We decided that we are going to add infraction and misdemeanor fees because that wasn't included in the fee schedule. So, the violations of various portions of the City Municipal Code constitute infractions or misdemeanors pursuant to Municipal Code sections 1-32 and 1-33 Infractions and misdemeanors shall be subject to payment of a fine set forth in the City's Master Fee Schedule, not to exceed the limits set forth in the California Government Code.

The City's fee schedule does not currently contain any infraction or misdemeanor fees. The proposed resolution if adopted would add the fines for infractions and misdemeanors consistent with the government code. The infraction and misdemeanor fees are listed in the fee schedule under the Code Enforcement section. The proposed infraction and misdemeanor fees are $100 for the first violation for infraction, $200 for the second violation within one year of the first violation and $500 for the additional violation within one year of the first violation.

And then fraction fees are $130 for the first violation, $700 for the second violation within one year, and $1,300 for each additional violation of the same ordinance within the first year of the first violation. And then $2,500 for each additional violation of the same ordinance within the two years of the first violation if the property is a commercial property that has an existing building at the time of the violation and the violation is due to failure by the owner to remove visible refuse or failure to prohibit unauthorized use of the property.

And then in fractions for violation of a short term. Violation of the same ordinance within the year of the first violation and then misdemeanor fees are $1,000. We're also including an increase to the per page copy fee from 10 cents to 25 cents And then Parks and Rec had a vendor fee of $50, so we actually have included that vendor fee into the planning fees and it's just more of a transparency thing. So folks that come in for TUP they'll be charged a $50 vendor fee per vendor.

So staff recommends adopting Resolution 26-1325, updating the schedule of the user and regulatory fees. And to increase that per copy fee to add fines for infraction and misdemeanors and move existing vendor fee to include in the planning section. And with that I'll pass it back to staff and you can open up the public hearing. Council sorry

I know what you meant. Thank you. I got demoted. Yeah, no worries Let's I need to formally open this up for public hearing which I will now do We're open for public hearing and I will go to public comment if there's any Local in-house or anybody online? I don't see any hands up Okay We'll then close it for the public hearing part and public comment. And go back to the hearing, any questions?

I've got a couple myself

but... Yeah just one. The prices that you've got in here for replicating and doing all the work on this stuff can that be applied also to Freedom of Information Act reports?

This would be the per copy charge if they wanted a physical copy.

So we can't use this on anything else? Well,

we don't fulfill FOIA requests because we're not a federal agency. But the California Public Records Act I think it was just the analogous state version that we follow. We can charge this per copy fee for copies like physical copies that they would ask for under that but what we can charge under the Public Records Act is like staff time to locate and find the records So yeah, it's just like we basically were recovering the cost of that paper and the time it takes to copy the record.

Thank you.

I have a question regarding the reset. Does it reset every year? Every 12 months, I mean if I get a violation on December 31 and do it again in January is that a new year or

what's the story? It's not a calendar year, it's a rolling year from the date of your first violation.

Okay but so it would roll sequential from there

Right, so if you violated the municipal code and got cited on January 1 and you didn't do anything until January 2nd the following year, you'd be back to first level infraction. Okay? But if you violated something on January 1 and in July and in August now you're getting second third violations and your fines escalate.

The vendor fee of $50 per vendor per event, is that how I employ it? That's only to the city. What about health department costs and things of that nature? Are they informed that they need to cover those costs? Yes, yeah. Through the separate? Yeah. Depending upon the type of vendor obviously if they don't have food services or selling something that's edible.

Correct and the vendor is responsible for getting that health permit but they will have to submit it to the special events person or planning.

And is there a fee if they don't get that and they continue to

They shouldn't be able to have the event if they...

The whole event or just that vendor?

Well, they can have the event but that vendor should not be participating without a health violation and...

Yeah,

but it's up for

the Health Department to do that which is county.

Correct.

So we've got two

different

organizations here that are directing the way in which they can operate. Correct

The procedure should work that we would not issue the permit if they didn't provide proof they had county health permit.

Is that is that the order in which we do it or no? That's

my

understanding yes okay all right so that won't be an issue then because if they are a food vendor without that you won't issue a permit correct to be correct okay yeah I just wanted to know what the process or statute or procedure was

I also want to go back to Councilmember Infante's question. There is a matter before the state legislature, AB 1821, Assemblymember Pacheco of one of the Southern California cities, I don't remember which one it is, has got a matter before the legislature to be able to charge for malicious use of the Public Records Act and or for business use. So we could potentially recover some costs. It's obviously controversial matter, but some individuals have admittedly used the public records process for malicious reasons and we've experienced a few of those as well as a business-related one that has cost us literally tens of thousands of dollars. So it's in the legislature I'm not sure it'll ever make it out but it's definitely being discussed

Thank

you. Let me add one more thing, the vendor fee is only if you don't have a business license so there was the I guess the craft sale type folks that were coming in doing a one-time thing and they wanted just to do a vendor fee instead of a business license So they have to have that per event, so those who are doing multiple craft fairs it would be cost-beneficial for them to get a business license.

But when we have like the junior entrepreneurial fair that comes up here, we don't charge them anything? No. Because you're under 18 or whatever as youth?

It's a youth thing yeah that's sponsored by the city.

Okay Just want to make sure because I asked one of the kids one time, you didn't charge sales tax. Kind of caught him off guard but that's a fun part any questions about this?

I just have one question I think pretty simple I'm just sort of wondering how we came up with the with the fee structure for the violations I mean was that sort of standard

Yes, it's directly out of the government code. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you.

We could have set things lower but we just adopted what we can do from the government code.

Beyond the fees if they're perpetual offenders is there like a revoke license or beyond some of these people maybe don't care about how much it costs because they're making enough to warrant I don't know

The way our code has been written is if they're habitual violators, one of the consequences is that they cannot renew their business license and that in itself is also a misdemeanor offense. So you may recall a recent issue with one of our lodging properties where they didn't pay the TOT we would not allow them to renew their business license until they made good on that

payment. Good okay Then I guess you need a motion then for this, right? Or is this just hearing so we're not...

There is a resolution before the council. So we would need a motion regarding Resolution 26-1325 and then once the motion is voted on you would need to close the public hearing.

But then is there going to be a follow up public hearing for this as well? No. This is one and done? Yes

sir.

Very good. Do I have a motion one way or the other for this?

I'll make a motion to approve resolution 26-1325 updating user and regulatory fees for various city services.

I'll second that. Roll call, please.

motion passes 4-0.

Thank you okay we're now closing the public hearing item 7a and moving on to next item 8 a would you read that in the record please

Adopt resolution 2613.29 waiving formal bidding and authorizing the purchase of two vehicles for the SYBT fleet.

Thank you, staff report please.

Good evening council so we are bringing this tonight to council to discuss the purchase of two additional vehicles for the San Ynez Valley Transit currently the San ynez valley transit Operates with six vehicles four vehicles are always on the road and then to our backup vehicles we are down two vehicles right now due to an accident, and then some warranty issues for a wheelchair lift on one of the vehicles In addition, those two vehicles have exceeded their mileage of 250,000 miles. Typically you want to get rid of vehicles after 150,000 miles but because of some recent We are bringing this to Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We're Innovative clean transit exemption for a CARB exemption, California Air Resources Board exemption to allow us to buy two new gasoline-fueled vehicles. And that is good through the end of this year. Moran associates are engineers who oversee the SYVT did reach out to other providers and there are other buses available of a similar cost but it's several months out as far as the lead time goes, six months to a year.

Last time we purchased buses through the Cal Act it took 12-18 months so We're hoping that you guys will consider allow us to purchase these vehicles now and move forward with, as we move forward with additional purchases we'll go through the Cal Act process and continue that way. Currently we'd like to purchase these two vehicles using our transit funds, state transit assistance STA funds that are managed by SBK. So the funds are available for the purchase of these vehicles and let's see.

In addition to the vehicles being currently available, they are also very similar to the existing vehicles we have now. So that's an additional benefit for riders as well as maintenance and drivers of the vehicles to have a similar fleet that they're using and driving. And then do you guys have any questions? We do have more in associates available to answer any additional questions or clarify things that I might not be able to answer.

Sorry,

I just have a couple of questions. Director Parrish, thank you so much. So what vehicles are currently in operation right now? How many?

So we have a four currently in operation, so we have a total of six but two are not operational right now.

Okay thank you.

Any other questions? Okay I had a few questions it appears that You mentioned that it's similar fleet, but in essence our entire fleet if I look at the report is based on Ford chassis. And now this is a Chevrolet chassis that is 2023 vintage and I have questions about the warranty, does warranty start in 2023 for five years and so we've already missed three of them.

So where's that warranty come and stop or start and stop on these vehicles? It appears that the chassis part or the body is Starcraft and that is a 2024 model. So I don't know how that works, and then when I look at the base pricing you've got roughly $115,000 per vehicle. I really need to know that well let me digress just a little bit more Why hasn't the body work or the accident work been done, or the warranty on the chairlift been accomplished? Or how long has that been in process? Because you say it's warranty work on a vehicle that was produced in 2018. I don't even believe there's a warranty on it after that period of time. But maybe Moore can answer that question. I don't know the answer to that.

Yes, I can speak to that. The warranty for the wheelchair was actually on the 2025 vehicle that we received last year so it's still under warranty and that wheelchair was repaired on July 8th. So that was subsequent to this staff report being put together. Okay. So that wheelchair warranty repair has been repaired in that vehicles back in service now another vehicle was in an accident a not at fault accident on June 3rd Unfortunately, the police report took almost five weeks to receive.

The vehicle is being assessed right now and the city is working with third party to figure out who's responsible for repairing and where the funds are going to be coming from.

When the insurance work that part out so we can go ahead and get it fixed and repaired and then submit that to the insurance company or either party whoever's at fault?

Yes, we are working to get it repaired and the city is going to pay for it in advance and then work it out with insurance.

How much longer will it be?

Well, this is Jim Moore. We're actually on our second option in terms of a possible repair site The vehicle was taken to one possible vehicle repair place and they declined to do the work. They thought it was too involved. We expect by the end of this week that we will have a response from the second possible vendor.

Okay, so we don't even have somebody working on it yet is what you're telling me? And

we don'

know who will.

Well, that is correct. We could not move forward until the city received the accident

report. All right. Then we're down one bus. What's the true urgency for this?

We have two 2018 vehicles that have over 250,000 miles. The maintenance is having a lot of issues. The cost to do the maintenance is exorbitant and they are becoming unreliable.

Okay, but this isn't something that you've learned about yesterday. This has been ongoing for I mean when they hit the mileage thing so anyway I'm sorry I don't want to be antagonistic here I apologize.

Mayor appreciate your question this is Jim Moore I think we also have to look at it within a context of the city successfully securing the CARB-ICT waiver, which allows the city to purchase in 2026 two gasoline fueled vehicles. If we had not been able to secure that, our fleet acquisition or replacement options would have been on I'm trying to look at this methodically. While I don't know buses, I do know math.

We have to, when we buy these vehicles we then have to brand them and wrap them. We have to get first aid and bike racks. We have a delivery charge. We have a fare box to put in and radios. And then we have directional signals signs to put in. How much will all that cost per vehicle? Because they're included in the other bid.

Well some of the costs that you just listed May be included in the other bid and a number of them are not included in the other bid. Such as branding, such as delivery fee charges so there are some that are similar there's some that are not. And the city owns the fare boxes, the city owns the bike racks which we hopefully will be able to move from the older vehicles to new ones Owns radios which we hope to be able to move, plan to move from one vehicle to another. So we'll hopefully be able to save on a number of areas.