City Council — September 14, 2026

Good evening, welcome to Solvang City Council closed session. We're starting at 530 this evening on September 14th 2026. And before we get started, I'm going to wish our council member a very happy birthday today. Congratulations. I think that's very cool. Just happened to fall on today so we'll make sure that she gets special treatment today. Roll call please.

Mike, would you

like to

Thank you.

Okay, a couple of housekeeping items. Please silence your phones if you have them handy and or turn them off. And we have multiple speakers so to get the most out of this please withhold applause or comments outside of the speaker itself. I have seven slips to speak are there others that haven't filled out a slip that would like to speak also? This determines, we have a maximum of 30 minutes so I'm going to say that it'll be, we'll give everybody the full three minutes. Otherwise we would divide it by the number of other people who want to speak. Also if you agree with the person in front of you or if you add something new public communications for a closed

Public communications on closed session items only. This section is intended to provide members of the public with the opportunity to comment on closed session items. This section is limited to 30 minutes, each speaker will be afforded three minutes and may speak only once.

Thank you. First up we have Candice Libera followed by Jennifer Cabello

Good evening mayor, council members, staff and audience. My name is Candace LaBera and I am your marketing events coordinator. I'm asking you tonight to give serious consideration of the contract that you will be reviewing in closed session. What has transpired is unfortunate and I recognize that it's a difficult situation for everyone involved. I also want to be clear that employees deserve fair compensation.

We all work hard for this city and for this community, and everyone deserves to be recognized for the work they do. But what the situation has created is something that goes beyond what numbers on a spreadsheet can show. It has created a morale issue among the employees who are boots on the ground, the people who show up every day who do the work, serve the residents and keep this city moving. When unrepresented employees receive increases and then represented employees are faced with a different level of increase by a considerate amount, the message being felt by many employees is that their work somehow matters less, that we matter less.

We deserve to feel valued, respected and appreciated. We are asking you to consider not only the terms of this agreement but the people behind the work, the employees who serve this community every day whose dedication experience many years of experience for some and commitment make the city stronger now more than ever we need to restore the morale trust and respect that are essential in moving the city forward We all share the same goal, a stronger more successful city. A community we can all be proud of. We should be working together toward that goal and not against each other.

When the city and its workforce stand together communicate openly and recognize each other's value everyone benefits including the residents that we serve We ask you to keep that shared responsibility in mind as you work and review this contract. Investing in the people who do the work, it is an investment in the future of this city. Thank you.

Thank you. Jennifer Cabrillo? And on deck is Christian Wright?

That was close. Calvio. Hello. I'm Jennifer Calvio. I am the Code Enforcement Officer in Solvang. I want to speak honestly about how this recent round of raises has made many of us Lions staff feel. It's difficult to understand how management could receive such significant raises while the people doing the day-to-day work in our community seemingly didn't receive the same consideration.

Whether we are out there on the streets serving the public or behind the desks keeping things organized and moving, we are at the foundation of this organization Without the line staff doing that work every day, the structure would simply not run smoothly. Leadership should not be standing at the top while everyone underneath carries the weight. I believe the structure should actually be an upside down triangle with the leadership at the bottom supporting and strengthening the staff who are doing the work at the top.

We don't want to feel expendable. We want to feel valued, respected, and appreciated for the work we do. Because when your employees feel appreciated, they give more. And when they feel overlooked it becomes very difficult not to wonder whether the work they do is truly valued. Thank you.

Thank you. Christian Wright is next and Jonathan Flynn is after her.

Hi, my name is Christian Wright and I've worked for the city in public works for about a year and a half now. I was born and raised here and have been part of a large family in this community my whole life. The entire community rallied around my family when I was 15 and had a brain aneurysm that almost took my life. My dad worked in the valley for the past 30 plus years. My mom at one point was the youngest escrow officer in the state located here in Solvang about a block away.

My sister was a Danish maid and I've worked with Danish Days my entire life, and now I'm Danish Day's board for multiple years now. My family and I are this community like so many co-workers here today. Staying here has always been a top priority for myself and my wife who also grew up here her entire life. It has become very difficult to do that recently with how the world has been changing in the cost of living skyrocketing.

When I left when I left my previous job it was a huge step for me to leave actual family to work somewhere new When I started, I felt like I had found more family and working hard every day being rewarded for my hard work. Like I was at my previous job. It felt like everyone here recognized the hard work and dedication we were all working towards the same goal with how these past few months have gone it feels like that has gone away and we are looked at as valuable Jonathan Flynn followed by Cole Phillips.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Jonathan Flynn. I'm the Public Works Supervisor for the City of Solvang. My grandparents were Anne and Jerry Flynn. In 1976 they made the front page of the San Ynez Valley News for adopting three kids here in Solvang. My grandpa sold duct tape door-to-door stomping the ground every day to keep the family fed. My dad owns a local HVAC company he built from the ground up.

My mom raised us three kids during the day and worked nights as a waitress at the hitching post for 16 years. I share these things with you I share these things with you to say that I come from a long line of men and women who have never been afraid of hard work. People who have invested in Solvang as Solvang has invested in them. Last fiscal year, senior management staff of the city received increases at an average of 34%. Union workers have been offered 4%.

My staff of six maintains every toilet, every floor, every brick and light on city property. When a storm takes down a tree in Solvang my team puts their boots on in the middle of the night to cut it into pieces and clear the roads for first responders and for residents I could go on about what we do and how proud I am to do it, but I'll end with this. I'm not here to ask for a handout. It's not what my family does.

I mean, I asked you to vote yes on a fair and living on a fair and living wage for all city employees, not just the few. Thank you for your time.

Thank you Jonathan Philip Cole Phillips followed by Jeff Lee

Greetings, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Cole Phillips and I serve as the Engineering Technician for the City of Solvang. For those who might not know me let me provide a brief background. I started in 2021 as an intern and in 2023 I stepped into a full-time position that I still hold today. My responsibilities range widely from technical plan reviews and on-site inspections to fleet record maintenance and state compliance tracking like CARB, BAR, and DOORS. I also manage critical state requirements such as SB 1383 and SP 54 just to name a few.

This work requires constant coordination across departments agencies including the Public Works Director, Maintenance, Parks & Recreation, Water, Wastewater While my job operates quietly behind the scenes, I work hand in hand with my peers and department heads every single day to ensure that our projects move forward smoothly and efficiently. I can state with absolute confidence that every single one of my coworkers and peers help maintain the functionality that makes Solvang such a special place to live in and visit from afar. With that said, Mayor, I urge you to vote yes on this contract proposal so we can keep this machine running right. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Jeff Lee and I'm the Business Representative for Teamsters Local 986. Tonight you've heard from your city staff members. There's nothing that I can say that they're not telling you right now. You have a fair contract in front of you and you have one job. Accept it. They don't want to go on strike. We don't want to go on strike. The ball is in your court.

Accept the contract.

Thank you. Cliff Reynolds?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of City Council. Pleasure to be here this evening. My name is Cliff Reynolds and I am a representative of Teamsters Local 986. I started bargaining with the city back in 2002. At the time there was a gentleman named Leo Mathiasen. I don't know if folks remember him but he was, I guess, the first city manager and he was the mayor. And I found a quote where he said that He considered himself a stubborn, tightwad Dane.

And that's relevant because from the time that I came to work here with City of Solvang in contract negotiations we have always had a good relationship with this city and we have always reached an agreement, a fair and reasonable agreement I've come to appreciate that relationship and the way we have been able to work through our differences and reach reasonable agreements.

Recent wage increases that have gone out to senior leadership, I don't want to get into that. I think it's been spoken enough about but I can tell you that the workers that come to work every day and help this city operate are not interested in, I won't say they're not interested in but they're not seeking a 40% wage increase or 25% or 10%. We currently have an offer that we believe we have provided to the city that is very fair and very reasonable.

I would say that if that offer was rejected for some reason, that it's a fairly reckless maneuver, I believe. Reckless for our city workers, reckless for members Members of City Council, for our senior staff members, for members of the general public and certainly for the business community. We're not here to hold anybody up or create any significant issues for the city. It's not something that we're interested in. We have a long track record with the city of demonstrating that I think. What we would ask is that the City Council would seriously consider Thank you very much everyone for your professionalism and decorum here today. If you will read into the record, we are going to go to closed session

Recess to closed session. Item 2A, Conference with Labor Negotiators pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.6, Agency Designated Representative Dave Fleischman, Assistant City Attorney, Employee Organization Teamsters Union Local 986. Item 2B, Conference with Legal Counsel Existing Litigation Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8D1 Name of Case Edward St. George v. City of Solvang et al., Case No. 25CB07234

Thank you. We are in reswiss at 545.

All right.

We are back in session at 6.32. Mr. Attorney, any reportable action?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. City Council met in closed session on two items. Conference of Labor Negotiators agency representative being me and employee organization Teamsters Local 986 there was no reportable action on that item the other item was conference with legal counsel existing litigation in Edward St. George versus city of Solvang there was no reportable action on that item

Thank you. We are finished with closed session, and I would like to start our main meeting in about four minutes. So at 637, can we be back and get started then for a little health break for my team? And we'll be going at that point. We'll start our regularly scheduled meeting. Good evening and welcome to the Solvang City Council open session and meeting for September 14th, 2026. We're beginning at 636 and roll call please.

Thank you. We have with us today our distinguished Lieutenant Travis Henderson, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please?

Thank you, Lieutenant. We have no proclamations today. Oh let me digress just a minute. A little bit of housekeeping and decorum if you'd please silence your phones or turn them off that would be awesome and then also If you have anything you want to say and fill out a little slip in advance, that would be huge. Okay we have no proclamations today. We do have a presentation however for our sales and use tax reporting presentation. Staff would you please introduce that?

Or did I just do that? Please let me see. Let me get this right. The presenter, usually I have staff do this. Wendy is not in the room. But this is Bradley Burns local sale, is that correct? The company and you are Mary de la Rosa. Please enlighten us.

Waiting for Randy because I think he's going to work the PowerPoint there Thank you for this opportunity to present to you today Mayor Brown, City Council members. We are going to be talking about sales and use tax today and so we'll go ahead and get started then So my name is Mary De La Rosa. I've been with the company for over 30 years. Muni Services was founded in 1978 by two partners, one of which worked for a city and was wanting to make sure that that city was getting all the sales tax that they should be getting from the sales in their city.

And so they kind of went from there. Currently, for sales and use tax we work with over 100 California jurisdictions. We also do other work, utility tax, business license, TOT and other general fund revenues. Last year we had a merger and we rebranded our corporate name to Numo. So you'll see Numo on here. You'll also see Muni Services According to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the CDTFA, we are still many services.

So we have worked with the city of Solvang for quite some time providing sales and news tax audit and reporting services. Our auditing, we do that on a quarterly basis when we get the data from the state. Our auditors are looking at that for anomalies. We're looking for new enclosed businesses looking for businesses that may have stopped reporting or sometimes getting money in error, but we want to make sure we're on top of that before it becomes too much of an issue.

And then our reporting services we provide quarterly to the city so I do meet with City Manager and Finance Administrative Services. The reports include your top 100 businesses, different trends We have a budget update, a legislative update and then we also have a total separate package just for measure U. Since we've been working for the city of Solvang, we have generated over $1 million in new and ongoing revenue for the city and the district.

And the district is measure U in case I talk about different things here. The first chart we're looking at is annualized percent change in sales tax receipts. The blue line is the City of Solvang, and then you have the County of Santa Barbara as well as the state. And on this report—and this is looking through first quarter 2026 data. That sounds dated but at the time I prepared this that was the most current we have. We just got second quarter.

And so we'll be getting new reports out soon on that. So on this you can see that the city, everything was positive. The city was up .6, the county 1.9 and the state 2.7. And typically and you can see, you know, the blue line you're up and down quite a bit in cities or other local jurisdictions are going to have a little more volatility than the entire county or the entire state.

The pie chart is looking at your business segments so you can kind of see the makeup of where your sales tax is coming from. I'm sure there's not a lot of surprises here. Your restaurants are your largest, followed by miscellaneous retail which would include gift shops, jewelry stores, bookstores and things like that. So it's kind of miscellaneous there. With the restaurants and the food markets, and then what we call food processing. And the food processing for your city is mainly tasting rooms. They fall under that. So just those three all in the food products are over 50% of your sales tax.

This chart's looking at the five major categories So you can see on here we have that your restaurants, your food products are your number one. As I said general retail construction business to business and transportation this particular quarter we did see declines in all of these quarter over quarter and that's comparing first quarter of 26 to 2025 And then just looking at your top segments and just going to give you a little deeper picture into how they've been performing. And of course, this goes back to 2019. So obviously the big dip was during the pandemic when probably most of your restaurants were closed as well as a lot of the shops and then came out of that strong as most cities did. And restaurants have been fairly stable since that time.

Then we had the miscellaneous retail kind of a similar pattern You know that what we've been seeing here, you know when you have tourism coming back people are traveling. People are driving especially after the pandemic when everyone wanted to get out so we've seen some good numbers there as well. And then the building material retail is your third largest.

And on this one, you didn't really we saw a little bit of a dip 2020 but then everyone was going to the hardware stores and the lumber stores and doing remodels and construction. And so we saw a big uptick during that time. We have seen it been going down and this is the same for pretty much every jurisdiction we work with but still higher than pre pandemic Okay, and then we have your top 25 sales tax generators. I have on the left are Bradley Burns that we refer to as kind of the normal sales tax out of the 7.25%.

And these are in alphabetical order so don't wanna deal with any confidentiality issues. So you can see you've got a lot of the restaurants on there, you've got your CVS, you've got Buell Flat Rock and other construction companies And on the right is the district tax, the Measure U. This will look quite different because it will include a lot of online sales. You can see Amazon, there are two permits that report as well as car dealerships. I think there's only one listed on here but if we go further into the reports you'd see many so for on the Measure U it is a destination-based tax and so anyone that shops online business or Residents that has any that delivered in the city you're gonna pay that extra one cent and that comes back to you So Amazon tick-tock eBay, whatever it may be and the same thing for cars wherever you go in the state of California They will be charging you the rate of where you register your vehicle.

And so you can't really escape it Even if you go to a city with a lower tax rate they are going to be charging that and you do receive that back So that's a real plus For that and then just wanting to say too on the On the Bradley Burn side, it's the top 25 or 60% of your sales tax. And on the Bradley Burn, I meant to measure you is only 45%, because there's many more permits again because of all the online sales and car dealerships.

And then this is just a breakdown of the five categories for the measure U. So it says local control, essential 1%. Also did see a decline quarter over quarter but a little different picture in that transportation you see that big bump that happened I think in 2023, that was some money that was received in error by the city. And so we worked with the city to get that mitigated and get that paid back because any time you get money, you want to try to get it out of your coffers as soon as possible too so they don't have any issues going forward on that.

On sales tax future looking at our forecast now The first forecast, this chart is showing the quarterly amounts going back to 2018. So again you can see the dip during the pandemic and then it goes through the current quarter of the first quarter those are the gold on the left and then on the right the gray is what we are projecting for the next quarters and next years And this just breaks it down on the different amounts you're receiving for 25-26. We did see in just a bit of a gain, 26-27 anticipate a 1% over the prior fiscal year and then some conservative growth going forward. And this is what we are projecting for most cities unless we know of major things that are happening in your local economy that would change that.

And then the same thing, this is for Measure U. We don't have as much history. This starts in 2023 and then goes forward from there. And then on this one you'll see a little bit more growth and usually on the district tech side we do see that because the online sales even though tourism may go down for looking at your local businesses, the online sales don't seem to be going down.

And people are still purchasing vehicles and so we do see some good numbers coming from outside. And just what goes into our assumptions a lot of different things you know we work with UCLA Anderson forecast we partner with them Their economists are great. We do some quarterly webinars with them, but they're looking at that macro view of the economy. They're looking at the nation and the state as a whole typically and lot of good information, but when we were doing your forecast for the city, we're looking at that micro view. We're looking at your cities and how there are your businesses and how they're performing talking with city staff to know if there's you know comings and goings and so forth, but also you know where we take into account All the different things that are going on in our economy.

Tariffs really hasn't moved the needle at all, you know the rebates or the refunds that came out were for the businesses not for the consumers. AI, I know that's a big issue and it's used in so many different ways. Some of them are very helpful but of course it's been politicized for cities which I don't think a data center would be here in Solvang but those cities are concerned about the energy and the water use and job impacts as well.

I only put UUT streaming on here for just informational. I know you don't have a utility user tax, but cities that do are now moving forward with taxing streaming services. City of Santa Barbara, your neighbor was the first one to do that going for Disney Plus and charging them utility user tax. Disney of course took that to court and they have lost twice. And so other cities are going to be jumping on that as well, and getting some tax from that because for cities that have a utility user tax, they lose on the cable side because a lot of people don't have normal, you know just regular cable TV anymore in there. A lot of the streaming services. So it's just an interesting side note there.

And then just also talking about gray-shaped or K-shaped economy. The gray shaped is really looking at A shift where, you know, the aging population and the baby boomers which I'm part of dominate consumer spending. But a lot of that spending is not taxable. We're talking about healthcare, social assistance, nursing and that's also where a lot of the new jobs in California are coming.

And then the K-shaped economy is really looking at, you know, the top portion of the K is high income earners, asset owners I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the things that we've seen in California. We know that gas is at its highest it's I would like These are just some of the things that we're looking at. Our analysts that prepares a forecast can go into a lot of detail, and we can certainly get you more of that if need be, but those are kind of just some of the basic ones that we're talking about today.

So any questions?

Thank

you. I had a lot of questions about the forecasting, but this last slide that you left us off with the tariffs and the K-shaped economy in the oil prices and gas prices, are you saying those were factored into the models that gave us all the projections through 2033 and beyond? Were there...

We're certainly taking those into account and talking with our partners That's not going to impact every city the same way. A city like Solvang that is heavily reliant on tourism, your restaurants, your hotels may not be as impacted by some of those things but it definitely could be because some people are not able to afford to travel right now. They can't afford gas and they're not going to restaurants. They're pulling back in other areas and so that could definitely impact your economy. But I know from getting here yesterday and walking the streets it was pretty busy, so...

And I was just curious if they were things that you, that were already in the model or if there are things to think about because I was curious how in the forecasting we have, you know, we're hovering in 2%, 2% plus for the next few years but that growth shrinks starting in 2028 through 2033. So I'm just curious what variables kicked in at that point or what insights we should take from that?

I mean, you only have the one service station so I really can't talk too much about that. But as more and more electric vehicles are on the road we do anticipate less gas usage. There's over 24% of new cars sold in California right now, electric or hybrid vehicles. So that's just one little portion of what's happening in your sales tax but our analysts go through all of these different factors when they're doing the forecast, when we talk each quarter beginning of each quarter looking at the data and just some of the things that are impacting our forecast, not just for the city.

It's useful data. We might want that as a follow-up or a double click to understand that model because the more refined we can be projecting Tourism, spend patterns and behaviors, traveling and tourism patterns. The better we can really budget and manage effectively because we are so dependent where we're non-diverse in our economic baseline. Be good to know that.

Yeah, we can definitely get more detail. We can do some other comparisons that I will forward on to Randy and then he can share those.

Could you elaborate on the $1.09 million in surplus that you received or that we got by your services? Where were those gaps, what plugs were we filling?

Well, you know as we look at any city and especially initially when we get a city for a client there's usually more to find than as you go maintenance through the years. So it can be a business that maybe has two locations maybe one in Buellton and one here Maybe they were reporting everything to Buellton, so we're going to find that kind of issue. We're going to see if a restaurant stops reporting or their numbers go way down. Are they still open? Our auditors will make some phone calls very professionally to the business, talk about the business activity and often these businesses will share their tax returns with us We'll help them to make sure that they are correctly filling in things over time. And so with that 1.9, it's looking at not only new what we found but we take into account, we kind of take it forward with, we found these businesses, we no longer charge a fee on them because we have a fee once we find something, we're compensated for so many quarters But they keep track of it even after that.

So, that's why the number is rather large and we can certainly go back and look at what some of those audit findings were. And then when a new district comes on board kind of the same thing that first we're going to look to see make sure that everyone that's paying on the Bradley Burnside is paying on the Measure U side. And then there's a lot of different things that come into account with that as well particularly on the online sales are a little harder to know exactly who should be reporting. But we know who the basic players are, and we're going to make sure that they're reporting to every district that each city or many cities have one or more districts.

I was going to add, I meant to be here when she first stepped up to the microphone so I apologize. I was dealing with trying to get one of our public hearing participants online. We work with Mary on a quarterly basis we have a Zoom call with her she goes over a lot of this information and helps keep us on track regarding potential sales tax issues like she said she found a number of errors in underreporting and those kinds of things. So she does a really good job, I've been quite frankly, I'm kind of a nerd so I'm fascinated by some of the stuff she does it's more art than science in a lot of ways and Councilmember Elizabeth Arono was asking some questions here recently And I thought it would be a good opportunity for her to come in and speak to you all, help you understand what she does and how we come up with some of the numbers we do for budget.

And probably invite her back in the future but at least get the introduction going. So thank you Mary.

Thank you so much. No other questions? Thank you.

Okay

we're gonna move on to item 3 public comment Public communications,

non-agenda and consent items. 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 I have a request well like she said it's limited to three minutes and we're gonna cap it at 30 minutes total if it goes that way So be efficient with your comments, please. First is Steven Gerard. You're at the podium and on deck is Denise El-Amin Thank you.

Good evening beloved Mayor, City Council and Solvang citizens I am Stephen Gerard Sadlowski a third-order Franciscan and I'd like to just express the joy of the Spirit of God as love for his creation. I'd like to also open with Holy Scripture Proverbs 12, 20 says that counselors of peace have joy. I am a pro-life speaker and just remember you can't have peace in the world unless it also includes peace in the mother's womb.

Some wonderful pro-life history that you may or may not already know. Ronald Reagan, former governor of California and U.S. President wrote the first letter of support to the Washington D.C. March for Life to Nellie Gray, the founder. I was able to meet Nellie Gray in Washington D. C., and learn the legal importance of pre-born personhood. You'll be delighted to also know that early this year, 4,000 citizens attended the California March for Life at the State Capitol in Sacramento including myself.

What I'm now providing you are four contents some of you may have already reviewed it. The first content is the precious feet pin which is provided by the Heritage House in Snowflake, Arizona. Miss Imada's there. You will see the size of your own feet when you were in your mother's womb at 10 weeks. The second content I am providing is a cover letter talking about the new pro-life direction of USA preborn personhood cities.

This is something that we can now do because of the US Supreme Court Dobbs decision and your city has a charter, that's why I'm really excited to be here in your beautiful city of Solvang. Content number three is the actual resolution in support of a Solvang, California declaration of a friendly and safe pre-born personhood city. It includes over 10 whereas statements and it includes about four be it further resolve statements. I hope you will put it on your agenda soon and possibly pass it by Christmas this year or Mother's Day or Father's Day next year And then finally, I am providing you my Bible bookmark. You'll be able to go ahead and contact me and ask your own questions. So I'd like to close with the song Let the Beating Hearts.

God bless you all. Thank you very much for permitting me to speak. Thank you. Next is Denise Elamine.

And after that is Sue Tarner. Thank you. Sue Tarner Craig, you're on that. You're after Ms. El-Amin.

Hi, my name is Denise Ellamine. I am a resident of Solvang, a taxpayer, a parent and a grandmother in this valley. I am standing here tonight to tell you plainly that we are voting no on Measure D. We all want safe quality school for our kids but asking this community to hand The Santa Ynez Valley High School $80 million requires a level of irrefutable trust and their school board simply has not earned it.

The Santa Ynez School Board sent out these expensive glossy Color ads trying to sell us on strict oversight. But let's look at their track record and 2016 we trusted them with Measure K. The law explicitly requires at least seven independent members on the Oversight Committee to watch our money. They failed to follow those basic guidelines they led just for community friend of the board to watch over millions of public dollars. So let's be real, if we couldn't trust the Santa Ynez School Board to properly oversee a $14 million bond, we would be fools to trust the board with 80 million.

The Santa Ynez Valley Board claims this money is for true emergencies like leaky roofs and broken plumbing But their own August 18 meeting exposed their real priorities. They are pushing a massive, expensive, competitive community swimming pool. We as taxpayers in Solvang we have already committed to $500,000 plus I have to pay what's on my tax bill This is what a tax bill looks like.

I already have three bonds on my tax bill for 25 and 26 that I've already paid. Solvang, Measure J, Santa Ynez Valley has one 2016. Measure K and Allan Hancock has a bond 2006 Measure I. This November the 3rd Solvang High School has put an 80 million bond D on the ballot, and Hancock has 240 million dollar bond on the ballot. So just know why it's expensive to live in this valley because we raise taxes, we raise bonds, and we do not care about the people who live here Thank you very much.

Next is Sue Turner Cray, thank you.

Hi good evening members of the community and the board my name is Sue Turner Cray I'm a local resident taxpayer and someone who cares deeply about our schools I am here to shed light on the left out facts regarding the Santa Ynez Valley High School $80 million bond. In 2016, we trusted the district. We voted for the 15 million bonds because we were promised it would fix our school but if you talk to our teachers they will tell you the real broken story mismanaged priorities and a total lack of oversight Now, Superintendent Dr. Sheehan right now is on a non-stop PR campaign to sell this massive $80 million bond which is over five times the amount of the last one but make no mistake this debt will be on our property bills for the next 35 years And district leaders are hiding behind generic ballot headings that give them a loophole to do whatever they want with our money.

Just yesterday, we heard the superintendent on the radio and we know behind closed doors she's rubbing elbows and meeting with the wealthiest stakeholders and power players in the valley to push this through. But let's look who is actually holding the reins. Superintendent Sheehan is an employee of Board President Chris Johnson. She answers directly to him, she's paid by him and she has to do exactly what he says.

And Chris Johnson is the man overseeing the $80 million. Now the very first thing Chris Johnson did after being sworn in to the high school board was to demote Jose Juan Ibarra, who was a sitting board president and the only Latino ever to sit on the high school board in its 135 year history. And then once he cleared him out the way, he brought fair framework into our high school. That framework gave teachers the opportunity to out vulnerable LGBTQ plus students traumatizing our students and sparked massive protests on campus. And now President Johnson wants 80 million of our tax dollars for the next three and a half decades. And the oversight committee will be hand selected by him and his common sense cronies.

They are trying to slip this bond past us right now because they know community-minded voters will be out in force this November. They are trying to exploit our love for our public schools. Our students do deserve safe facilities, but taxpayers deserve true integrity and true accountability. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And I'm sorry I've mispronounced your name more than once. Okay, is there anyone on Zoom that wishes to make public comment? I don't see any hands up. Is there anybody else sitting here today that would like to say something on public comment? Yes sir please. It's a non-agenda item.

That's very specific for Item 7a though. We will now close it to public

I've been up to my eyeball dealing with labor issues the last few weeks, and so I haven't really had a chance to compile any comments about my usual report. We did have a very successful community cleanup on August 15th. And collected just over four tons of trash, so it's not a record. But again we're getting a lot of the community stuff picked up. The next one will be mid-November and when we will be located at HCA Park kind of over the area behind where the tennis courts are and I'll probably have an opportunity to set a new record then and that's all I have for now.

Thank you any questions or City Manager? Okay,

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