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iHow this transcript is madeUnGovr transcribes the official recording with automated speech-to-text, separates speakers by voice, and matches voices to the seated roster. Names and attributions are AI estimates and may contain errors.Verify any quote yourself: click anywhere in the transcript and the official video jumps to that exact moment, so you can check any quote against the recording.0:02 – 0:021 turns
I'd like to call tonight's meeting of July 14th, 2026 to order. Council Member Villasenor, can you read these in the pledge please? Yes,
Roll call, called by City Clerk
Show transcript
Agenda Discussionitems moved / continued / pulled, click to expand
Moving on to number four approval of the agenda So moved. We got a motion and a second? Second. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes unanimously thank you. Moving on to number five presentations 5a food share presentation welcome.
Thank you do I use this yes please and i believe i have a presentation here if i pull this out Well, good evening council members. My name is Monica White I'm the president and CEO of FoodShare Ventura County and I am honored to be here tonight to give you an update about the state of hunger in Ventura County but also more specifically what is happening in Fillmore.
There we go. Just a little history about FoodShare, we are nearing our 50-year anniversary of starting here. We started in a two car garage back in 1978 and have grown to our current three facilities in Oxnard. I'll get it. And how we started in the very beginning was actually gleaning from our local fields. As you know, Ventura County is a huge ag community and our founder and their friends went out to fields to be able to collect excess or whatever was not being picked up by these tractors so you could see here they were following them and the first year they gleaned 34,000 pounds of food.
Fast forward to last year, we distributed 23 million pounds of food. So we have grown but our mission remains the same ensuring that no one in Ventura County goes hungry. And how we work is, I'm not gonna go over every single thing on this. But overall we glean, we rescue food from retail stores. We purchase about $2.5 million worth of food on an annual basis. We work with ag partners, we work with the Port of Wene'mu and we also get food government commodities from the government. All of that comes into our food bank and goes out through our network of pantry partners. 200 nonprofits throughout Ventura County, we are working with who get all of the food that we're sourcing at no cost. We don't charge anything and we do not charge for delivery as well.
Their job is to be able to serve those who are in need. Those pantries or those agencies could be pantry partners, they could be shelters group homes. They can be after school programs such as the Boys and Girls Club or drive through distributions that we started during COVID. There are hot meal sites and there also a senior kit program. Let's get a little bit into the state of hunger in Ventura County. So last year FoodShare served 254,000 individuals. That is an unduplicated number meaning that we know exactly how many people are going once twice or maybe even 20 times depending on when they need help. The good news about this 254,000 number is that 75% of the people who go to get food assistance only come three times or less in a year. Meaning that they need help exactly when they need it.
And they may not be able to sign up for food stamps, or they have a medical situation, or their car broke down, or their refrigerator broke. Whatever it is our pantry partners are there to be able to serve anybody no questions asked and they're all treated with dignity and respect. One of the things I wanted to point out on here is that our volunteers, so on an annual basis 4500 volunteers help FoodShare to be able to distribute all of this food. Total it was about 45,000 hours. Our staff of 41 can't do our job without those thousands of volunteers. They're absolutely integral to our success.
So let's talk a little bit about Fillmore and Piru. So last year, we distributed 602,000 pounds of food. When you convert that into meals, it's half a million. It's 501,000 meals. That served 7300 people and as your population is 16,000, it's about 44% of the community was served through one of FoodShare's network pantry partners. We work with 18 different partners and we rescue food from three different retail partners. If we were to go to Vons and buy all of this food that we need to distribute to these people, the value of that is nearly $2 million. So fortunately for us, that's not our cost because a lot of the food does get donated but a lot of it does get purchased as well.
So these are some of our pantry partners that we work with in Fillmore, Bardsdale, United Methodist Church, the Church of Christ, St. Francis of Assisi and One Step All of Us. We do have a An app, I think of the word that helps people to be able to direct people who need help but also those who are in need. They can pull up our app and they can see within GPS exactly what is open right now so they could see if the Fillmore Church Of Christ is open now or if there's something a little bit further out perhaps in Santa Paula perhaps even in Ventura that they can go get immediate assistance.
So here's some of the pictures that just show some of the work of Food Shares Mission. College Park Drive-Thru, this is in Oxnard. We started this distribution during COVID cuz we needed a way to be able to distribute a lot of food to a lot of people. Here we are six years later still doing this distribution. It takes 70 plus volunteers to be able to assist 1,000 cars that comes through. It's about 5500 individuals that are being provided food on a weekly basis.
Our unhoused. We have a specific program just for our unhoused community and that this bag of food, which is a lot easier for our unhoused to be able to carry if they're on a bike or if they're walking in this bag We call it kitchen free because it does not require anything such a refrigerator or a stove, not even a can opener. We provide the utensils we provide pop tops all of that in there is specifically purchased all for our unhoused 70,000 of these kitchen free bags have been distributed since COVID and these are actually taken by our pantry partners and they distribute to those clients who need them.
Our farm workers, 45,000 farm workers in the county of Ventura. A lot of these farm workers are unable to make some of our distributions because of the time that they're working. So what we have found is we're able to partner with farm worker agencies who are helping us to be able to distribute directly right in the fields. We bring it to them as they are finishing up their shifts and they're able to get food, feminine hygiene products and even diapers.
Our seniors, we are a government program. We have a government program that serves 3,500 seniors on a monthly basis. They get a big box of food, a big box of produce and a big block of cheese. If you're over the age of 60, you live in Ventura County and you're under the federal poverty level for California, you will qualify for one of these boxes. If you don't qualify which is a self-certification process, we have another box of food to make sure that no one goes home hungry.
And then we have a kids program, such as the Boys and Girls Club right here in Fillmore. Where we give them a nutritional education process and we give them a recipe, we give them the food. They get to see how the food is made and then they bring it home to their family to be able to show them how wonderful kale smoothies are or whatever it is that they've made that day.
But you can see the kids love it. But the bad news is, is that we are still continuing to feed a record number of people. So what we have to do in order to be able to ensure that we can continue to be But we have purchased land, it is in Oxnard right by our current facility. And we're gonna be building an 85,000 square foot facility to be able to be all under one roof.
Here's a design rendering of that beautiful new building that will be able to accommodate even more food. Last year, we had to turn away 8 million pounds of produce because we did not have the capacity to accept it. We only have so many spaces in the cooler and even though we've built a brand new cooler to be able to add to that, it's still not enough. So our new facility will be able to ensure that even if the number of people stays the same of the people in need, what if we can give them two bags of groceries as opposed to one? So that is our goal.
Here's a picture of the front entrance. We're starting a new program where those pavers in the very front are gonna be offered to the community, to be able to engrave a special message, to memorialize and to be able to participate in the building of our foundation of our brand new building. The good news is this $50 million project, we have already raised 45 million of that.
We have turned in our drawings to the city of Oxnard and hope to be able to get our permits by the end of the year and then build the building and hopefully in two to three years we will be in our new building
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and we will of course be inviting all of you as well. But thank you so much for the opportunity to be able to share a little bit about hunger in Ventura County, and more specifically right here in Fillmore. And thank you again for your time.
Thank you so much and we really appreciate all that your organization does to help feed our population. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Cindy, I just wanted to thank you also. And it's a quick question for you and that is for the audience that's here and for those that are watching and listening so they want to help go to the website click the button is that what we should do?
Thank you for asking that. So there's three things that we can always use as people I say, Monica what can I do to help? We could use your dollars of course. For every dollar we can buy $5 worth of food. We could use your hours. We need always need more volunteers and we can use your food so if you have any excess food if you know somebody who has an orchard and they can need we can glean it from them or if they want to do a food drive all of those make the magic of a future.
Perfect
thank you so much.
I also have a question regarding receiving food, I'm sorry. For those who are listening and for those who are participating online, are there any requirements for anybody to receive whether it's the snack packs or diapers or anything like that?
Very good question. No, there is nothing required. We like to say that the fact that anyone is willing to wait in line for food is enough proof for us.
Thank you.
Okay now can I sit down?
Moving on to item number 5B, Ventura County Fairgrounds. Welcome young ladies.
Good evening Council and staff and it's a pleasure to be here. My name is Betsy Chess and I'm on the Ventura County Fair Board and with me are members of the Ventura County Junior Fair Board and they will be doing most of the talking fortunately. But our purpose here this evening is to tell you that it's almost fair time, July 29 through August 9. It will be the fair and the theme this year is find your fun. And the reason we're here specifically this evening is to give you a copy of the fair poster which there's the great reveal.
I don't know if we, yeah. This poster was drawn by a ninth grader from Camarillo. Her name is Annalise Chang. The second place was Mike Sanchez, a 10th grader from Ventura and the third place was Simon Shapiro from Simi Valley so we had a county-wide participation. I've brought with me some flyers which we can pass out Thank you. Which tell about the events of the fair, and also this year there's something new wouldn't you know it's the clear bag policy. Some of you may have gone to events at Dodger Stadium or whatever clear bags are becoming More and more required by large events, so just remember that as you're planning things. So now I would like to introduce these lovely ladies.
This is Mia Urbana who is the president of the Junior Fair Board, Rosalie McPhail, Marissa Calderon and Peyton Anderson. There we go. So ladies take it away please.
Thank you, thank you. Well as Betsy said I am Mira Vano and I'm a rising senior here at Fillmore High School born and raised also in Fillmore. We are members oh actually no introduce yourselves like where do you go to school? Where do you live?
Hello my name is Marissa Calderon I'm from Fillmore and I am a 10th grader at Fillmore High School
Hi, my name is Peyton Anderson. I am a rising sophomore and I go to Moorpark High School and I live here in Fillmore.
Hi, my name is Rosalie McPhail. I'm a rising junior. I live in Fillmore and I go to school at Fillmore High School.
We are members of the Ventura County Fair Junior Fair Board. The JFB is an organization for high school students throughout Ventura County focused on youth leadership development and community engagement. During the fair, we put on classic games like watermelon eating and karaoke. We are here on behalf of the Ventura County Fair to present the official 2026 fair poster.
Over 300 young artists submitted their artwork for consideration this year's Youth Poster Contest. We have seen a remarkable increase in submission over the last few years and can contribute that to the elimination of any fee to enter the competition. The incredible artwork created by Ventura County youth never ceases to amaze us.
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As Betsy said, submissions were judged by a panel of community partners and fair team members. The winners were announced as in third place Simon Schiaparino in 6th grade from Simi Valley. In second place we have Mica Sanchez, a 10th grader from Ventura. And this year's winning poster was drawn by Annalise Cohen, a 9th grader from Camarillo.
We are excited to share the Grandstand Concert Lineup for the Ferris, July 29th Bush, July 30th Marshmallow, July 31st Aeration, August 1st Jake Owen and we will be having two bandas. August 3rd Ashanti and Bow Wow, August 4th Switchfoot and Hoop Sink, August 5th Nate Smith, three days of Rodeo, August 7-9.
We have special admission days on Wednesday, July 29th, $5 before 5 p.m., Friday, July 31st, Youth Day, Tuesday, August 4th, Seniors and Disability Day, Wednesday, August 5th, VCCU Member Day, Thursday, August 6th, Community Heroes Day. Friday, August 7th, Food Share Day. We would also love to see you at the Junior Livestock Auction on Friday, August 7th where myself and hundreds of other Ventura County youth exhibitors will be selling their projects.
Hope to see y'all at the fair!
Thank you. And if you're like me, or you listen to that lineup of music groups and went, huh? But they're all going to be wonderful I can guarantee.
You took the word right out of my mouth.
It's not there. There I got it. There we go.
Thank you. Okay,
moving on to item number 5C. Proclaiming National Parks and Recreation Month June 2026. Whereas National Parks and Recreation Month is celebrated each July to recognize the vital role that parks and recreation programs and open spaces play in building stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities. And whereas the City of Fillmore's parks, recreational facilities, programs, and community events provide opportunities for residents of all ages to engage in physical activity, enjoy the outdoors, develop healthy lifestyles, and strengthen connections with family, friends, neighbors, and whereas Parks and recreation contribute to the quality of life in Fillmore by providing safe and welcoming spaces for play, exercise, sports, leisure, cultural activities, and community gatherings.
And whereas recreation programs, youth activities, community events, and seasonal celebrations help foster civic pride, encourage community engagement, and create opportunities for residents to learn, grow, and connect with one another. And whereas the city of Fillmore's parks, trails and open spaces help preserve natural resources, enhance environmental stewardship and provide residents and visitors with opportunities to experience and appreciate the beauty of our community and surrounding landscapes.
And whereas parks and recreation professionals, volunteers, coaches, instructors and community partners work diligently throughout the year to maintain facilities, deliver programs and provide valuable services that enrich the lives of Fillmore residents And whereas the city of Fillmore recognizes the importance of investing in parks and recreation as essential community assets that promote health, wellness and environmental sustainability and economic vitality. Now therefore I Albert Mendez, the mayor of the city of Fillmore California on behalf of the Fillmore City Council do hereby proclaim the month of July 2026 as National Parks and Recreation Month in the city of Fillmore and recognize July 2026 as Parks and Recreation Month I encourage all residents to celebrate the benefits of parks and recreation, and participate in local programs and activities.
And express appreciation to the dedicated professionals, volunteers, and community partners who help make Fillmore a vibrant and healthy community. Thank you. Council Member Villasenor?
Mayor, we have Amanda here to receive the proclamation.
Oh wonderful! Thank you City Manager.
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Mayor, if it's okay if I say something. Thank you for the proclamation and just to recognize Amanda DeZavala who is our community service specialist basically she is the person who runs the Parks and Recreation Department and she answers all of your calls and help schedules the fields, the facilities Juggles an amazing schedule of, you know, putting puzzle pieces together and doing her best to serve the community. And answer any concerns that the community has about Parks and Recreation. So Amanda thank you and your staff and all the staff in Parks and Rec for all the great work you do. Our Parks and Recreation department is really soaring high with you. So thank you.
Now moving on to my favorite part of tonight's agenda item 5D. Recognition of the Fillmore 8 and Up All-Stars team and coaches, and also our Heritage Valley Blazers Youth Track Organization. I will start off with our Fillmore 8 and Up All-Stars team who this year... 8 and under yes All-Star team for this year had an amazing, amazing season and they represented Fillmore proudly.
And they did a great, great job and I want to congratulate you young ladies and I hope to see you all in the future just continue to just ball out for Fillmore. Thank you. So I will call these from the podium is that okay? Okay, first I want to call up Jerry Ramirez. Jerry thank you for all you did this year and it's a commendable job. Thank you so much
Where do you want to sit down?
Next up, Hector Sanchez. You guys can line up right around here. Hector likewise. Thank you for all you do. Sonia Ponce. Oscar Nino. Thank you. Jose Aguilar. Hey, Jose, thank you now for everything you do. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Danny Montelongo. Danny, thank him. Okay, Aliyah Ramirez. Congratulations. Destiny Brands. Catalina Quiros. Congratulations. Annalisa Villa. Corey Avila.
Penny Nino. And Jazlyn Aguilar. Yaretzi Lara. Daniela Montelongo. Isabella Nolasco. Serenity Suarez. And last but not least, Adi Avila.
Yeah sure you want to move them over here in
the center? Maybe you can go more towards the center.
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And then we can take one outside in front of City Hall as well. Okay, ready? One two and three. Mayor, if I could say a word before you move on to the track. Okay thank you so
I just wanted to say a special congratulations to the Fillmore AU Girls All-Star, to all the coaches, to the parents. This is a really huge accomplishment. My daughter is in the league too and it's been It's been 10 years or so since a team has made it to State, which is where these girls did. It's really big. So congratulations girls! Keep working hard. Keep grinding. Parents thank you for your time. I mean these are volunteer coaches. These are dads and moms who are coaching I've seen you all the time at Shields Park putting in the work and it really shows. So girls, you put in the work and you will see the results so keep up the great work. The City of Fillmore is super proud of you and you're just going to keep rising. Great job!
So up next is our Heritage Valley Blazers track, boys and girls. And equally impressive these young ladies and young men have been putting in the work for the last few months. I mean, I went out there to help a little bit but these coaches just went above and beyond just preparing our grandkids and kids to just really go out there perform and it's showing. I mean their fruits of their labor is paying off and they're going to be participating in the California Junior Olympics right?
U.S. Junior Olympics at the end of July, so at Cerritos College. So it's a big accomplishment. So let me start off by calling the coaches. Coach Eric Magana. Coach Ken Layton. Janessa Montiel. Lily Mendez. Pablo Cervantes. Congratulations. Isaac Rivera. Congratulations. Max Magana. Congratulations. Ethan Layton. And last but not least, Michaela Magana
I can have you just look here for a moment. One, two and three. One more please. Awesome.
Okay, moving on to item number six, public comments. I have one public comment card for Jimena Cortes and you have three minutes. Welcome.
Hi. Good evening honorable mayor, members of the council and to all the attendees. My name is Ximena Cortes. I am a Rancho Sespe resident, a UCLA political science graduate and a legal professional. I'm here to present an independent infrastructure demand and a petition signed by over 115 residents including 13 legal professionals and 5 esteemed attorneys We are giving formal notice of a severe public safety hazard. We demand dual traffic lights for the eastbound and westbound entrances of Rancho Crespi, mirroring the infrastructure recently granted housing to Heritage Grove residents. Furthermore I have initiated contact with Caltrans. Their official response stating situation is acknowledged and will be addressed establishes the clear state level recognition of this danger leaving the city with a direct obligation to act.
Exiting our community every morning is an imperative risk. My neighbours are scared to leave their homes, even for basic necessities like groceries because our safety has been neglected for over 50 years. Grandkids, relatives, friends and family are scared to visit due to the risks that entrance carries. This city's inaction is legally defensible. I'd like to share the story of Doña Victoria. She has lived in Rancho Crespi for 36 years and drove for over 40. I say used to because the city's lack of highway safety cost her everything. She was violently struck by a high-velocity driver while trying to turn into our community. Her car was totaled, and after five grueling surgeries and three years of physical therapy, her knee will never recover.
Yet she was blamed for simply trying to go home. The law failed to adjudicate the outfall driver and the city failed to guarantee her safe passage home. This is an unlawful mission of duty that directly violates Caltrans policy directive 37, the complete streets mandate which requires safe equal road access for disadvantaged communities. This council ignored three separate community reports. Three, that as a disregard for my community and I'm here to hold the city accountable.
I also recently mapped that Fillmore has seven traffic lights that are 0.1 miles apart. Drivers pass C Street, drivers enter a 4.4 mile infrastructure dead zone. Rancho Sespe sits directly in the unlit void. Guaranteed highway safety is a fundamental right to life. I urge this council to take administrative responsibility tonight Direct the Public Works Department to immediately partner with Caltrans, utilize your capital improvement grants and place this proposal in the next meeting's agenda. And fund this installation before the next collision becomes fatal. How long must we wait for a safe passage home?
Thank you.
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I do have one member of the public that would like to comment via Zoom. So Eric Cardenas, I will promote you to panelist and you will have three minutes so please go ahead and unmute yourself.
Hi can you hear me? We can hear you All right, thank you. Mayor Mendez and members of the City Council, my name is Eric Cardenas and I'm calling in on behalf of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden just up the road in Santa Barbara County also as a co-chair of a biodiversity working group that represents 55 organizations from throughout the Tri-County region working on biodiversity issues including here in Ventura County.
I'm here to go back in time a couple of months actually, and thank you for your leadership in elevating biodiversity through your recent May 26th Biodiversity Proclamation. One that recognizes that we live in a biodiversity hotspot called the California Floristic Province with thousands of endemic plants and animals throughout the Central Coast and beyond. We are heartened that the proclamation affirms the city's commitment to protecting and promoting native plants, wildlife and coastal ecosystems.
And that it commits the city to consider biodiversity and native plants in future planning efforts. And that it encourages partnerships throughout the community to promote stewardship and conservation. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is here as a resource for you, specifically around native plants and landscaping. And we have other colleagues here in Ventura County who support this effort with their other expertise or equally available to serve as a resource for you.
And after watching the presentation tonight maybe we can find a way to work with your amazing Parks Department that was just recognized in your National Parks and Recreation Months Proclamation. So with that, we just wanna thank you again for your leadership and your vision. Please let us know how we can help. I'm apologizing that I'm a couple months late to thanking you for your May Biodiversity Proclamation. Thanks for your great work.
Thank you. If we have any other members of the public joining us via Zoom that would like to provide public comment please raise your hand Just one second, we're just handling the virtual public
comment.
I don't see anyone on
speaker. Okay, I have two more speaker cards here. The next speaker card is for Christina Mirati. Welcome, Christina.
Hi.
You have three minutes.
Okay, thank you. Just pull up my notes and not your council notes. I am here, I am Christina Marotti. Thank you all for having me. I live on Hunter Drive and I'm just here today to thank the police department. Thank you. I had a scare last week my four-year-old went missing for an hour and 20 minutes and I was petrified. I'm sure most of you council members and a lot of you know how petrifying that is as parents.
The police department showed up within one minute. One minute they were at my door Within a couple of minutes, there were more. Within a couple of minutes, there were more. They were combing the streets. They were combing my house. They did an excellent job. I called to thank you. Thank you. I didn't get through so I just thought I would come here personally. I know a lot of the time some of the negative things about the police department are that they don't show up. They showed up. So I just wanted to say thank you so much. He was found. He's fine. He was sleeping. Curled up under a blanket. Couldn't see him, he was in a little child's pose. Looked like a blanket. Anyway I appreciate their prompt response. I appreciate their respect. Their calmness.
How they were so calm under pressure. I thought I was calm my kids told me I was not but I thought I was I also want to thank the community as a whole because I had neighbors looking. The police were going to people on, I'm at Hunter so people were at Foothill found out about it. People down at Stonehedge found out about it. My neighbors were searching for my kid and the librarian was searching for my kid like I just wanted to thank the community that's what I love about Fillmore not just the police response and the police respectfulness and helping out but also the community as a whole so I wanted to thank you for that.
You Erica and Council Member Garnica, and Mrs. Brogy who are not here for getting our street up to fire code and Fire Chief wherever you're not here today but Carrillo I want to thank you for getting our street up to fire code because we had some issues and you guys got involved and got it resolved within a week so I thank you for your prompt response and I think you for our new fire hydrant. Thank you very much. Have a good day.
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Next up I have Rosanna Foote. Welcome, Rosanna. You have three minutes.
Hi, my name is Rosanna Foote. I live actually right over there 432 on Rose Street in Fillmore. I recently moved here for peace and quiet. I'm a retired teacher and I generally really like the community but I must state that I'm very concerned about what happened on the fourth of July. Part of the reason why I left my home was because I was in a hilltop home and I had to be evacuated In Sunland, two times. One time in one of my homes and then my mother's home also had to be evacuated on the Laguna Canyon fire and then also you know the year before we had the huge fires around the city so I'm very concerned about fire, the fire danger and living in a foothill sites. I'll never live in the hills again But I did move near the hills, and I was really surprised when I got my fire insurance.
And Fillmore was rated 9 out of 10 for fire danger. And I couldn't believe it. I'm like why is that happening? I'm paying like over $6000 for the fare plan. Now I realize because one of the few communities that allows safe and sane Distribution cells of fireworks in a drought area with hills that are getting drier and global climate change is only going to exasperate that.
And on 4th July I was very disturbed by I have it on my phone. Boom, boom, boom. I looked it up. You're not supposed to have the big fireworks in the communities. But no, it was all over right behind my house and we live at the bird sanctuary and all those birds probably got traumatized plus the pets. And I was so worried about my house that I called the police twice and they were like well it's legal in Fillmore. No, I looked it up.
The big fireworks are not legal but because you allow sell of fireworks It was not looked at. There was no way to dispute it and we have solar panels on our roof, it could catch on fire, dry hills. My fire insurance costs are really high like over $6000 plus that's minor compared to the trauma of the sounds. Thank you You know, boom-boom all night long way past midnight and the next day I was so surprised. I was so amazed how clean Fillmore was when I moved here. The walkways and everything because I lived near Laguna Canyon became very you know filled with trash and litter and it affects the wildlife and the next day all over the streets it was littered That can affect the wildlife and all in the bird sanctuary, all on the walkway. So I'm really stressing that I think that needs to be revisited.
You need to stop selling fireworks and we need to have a safer saint community. Thank you. And if it doesn't stop here, I'm going to actually go to state capital and see if I can get state legislation passed. So, I would like to know what's gonna happen. Thank you.
City Council Reports, Recommendations, Comments, Committee, Commission and Board Reports. I can start off with mine it'll be real quick most of my committees all of my committees have been dark so i have nothing to report out this week council member Villasenor
Yes, thank you. A few comments. I don't have any reports out also from my committee's commissions. I've got a meeting on Thursday for the sanitation district and I will report back at the next meeting. I wanted to in my comments address what I could of our Of our speaker, I'm sorry of our public commenter who came to talk about Rancho Crespi. And I just wanted to note yeah this is just me giving my comments to you so and they'll be recorded also and we can touch base but um I wanted to make sure sorry go ahead and sit down it's not a back-and-forth that The area of Rancho Sespe is not within the City of Fillmore's boundaries, geographic boundaries or purview.
So as you may know that the community of Piru including the area of Rancho Sespe, including Bardsdale, including all the area after you cross Sespe Creek, right? That's all county unincorporated area. And so the decision makers, the policy makers and the authority that can assist you as you bring forward your concerns is the County of Ventura and I'm glad to work with you in providing that information and who the local sort of like the community representative who's supposed to take those concerns and share them with our county supervisor Ms. Kelly Long I'm glad to connect you to them. And any information that, by the way, the City of Fillmore has actually been doing a couple of traffic studies along 126th and we have some data and results have come back from that so I'm happy to connect with you and provide you that information.
So I can give you my card right now and I can do that. That was one comment. Another comment I wanted to make is Regarding immigration and regarding ICE enforcement, we know in the news that it has been a very tragic week with two additional deaths of immigrants here in our nation. And one of them in a very small town that's smaller than Santa Paula and maybe a little bit bigger than Fillmore.
I wanted to remind the community that the City of Fillmore almost a year ago conducted a workshop in Spanish about for immigrants, a know your rights workshop. But beyond that also just lots of resources legal resources for Families, we talked about food share earlier today. Other resources legal rental housing rapid response hotline numbers and that workshop is available on the city's YouTube page. And hopefully we can have it on the website too and I'll just keep repeating
this. In both languages?
In both languages, yes. The workshop is in Spanish and I want to say there might be a translation to English. So I wanted to remind the community that the City of Fillmore has resources and we are doing, we provided what we can in that respect but we understand I can speak for myself as a council member directly. Can't imagine the fear that exists in our immigrant community and we're glad that we have these resources.
En español quiero decirte que yo sé que esta semana pasada ha sido muy muy pesada con um um I'm And so yes, I just wanted to say that. Thank you.
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Yeah, my report's gonna be relatively short as well. So I participated in a luncheon actually today with Los Vets of Fillmore Peru. This was a monthly meeting of veterans from the local area. We get together for lunch and just talk about our experiences, as well as every year we raise money for, I know that the fire department has like a Toys For Tots. I did participate in that as well as I had a meeting with along with the mayor and city manager with our local representative at the state assembly level, Jackie Irwin.
That was on July 7th to discuss the needs of Fillmore and the Valley. So I've got her number, so one of the things that we can do going along with what Council Member Villasenor said was although we can't directly do something for what you guys asked about, we can certainly help be a voice to the people that do make decisions and certainly I as well would be willing to lend my voice to that.
Thank you. Council Member Rodriguez? Very similar to Mayor Mendez, very dry, dark but not in a negative way. Thank you.
All right thank you okay so moving on to number eight consent calendar and I can motion to approve the consent consent calendar. So moved. Okay got a motion. Second. I'll second. Got a motion and a second all in favor? Aye. Motion passes unanimously thank you
Moving on to item number nine, new business 9A designation of voting delicate and two alternates for League of California Cities Annual Conference Expo.
Hello Mayor and Council Members. It is that time of year for the League of California Cities Annual Conference and Expo taking place September 23rd through the 25th at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA. The League of California Cities allows each member city, including the city to vote on the annual business meeting. This allows the league membership to take action and resolutions in established league policies I am here today to ask you to vote for the delegate and two alternates. Our current City Council member Villaseñor is the primary voter as a delegate for that, and then we currently have Mayor Mendez and Mayor Pro Tem Garnica as alternates There will be no facial impact for the city for this action so all I ask from you today is to vote for a Delegate and two alternates for this expo slash conference.
I'm glad, thank you, I'm glad to be the voting delegate. I'll be at the conference if you like. You have my nomination. Oh sorry! I'm
going to serve as an alternate as well so... Yeah basically I'm seconding the motion that we all remain in the same positions.
Is that fine with everybody? Okay. I vote yes.
So we're remaining the same?
Yes. Do we need a formal vote? Do we need to have a motion? No, okay thank you so much. Moving on to 9b amendment to the adopted 2026 City Council meeting calendar.
That's my item. Thank You Mayor next slide please Wonderful, so along those same lines there's a conflict. There's a scheduling conflict with the conference and our regular meetings. So just to provide the public with a quick update on December 9th typically every December the council votes to adopt a set schedule for our meetings And like I mentioned, on September 22nd the League of Cities conference is actually starting. And so we have a conflict with that meeting.
The league starts on Wednesday but we would have to check in the previous evening. And so the municipal code on section 2.08010 generally requires the council to meet on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month And any deviation requires council voting or for the council to take action. Next slide, please. Why does a conference matter? Because it provides training and education. It's professional development for all of you.
It's a statewide policy engagement also. And it's just effective local governance. I do find value when the council attends these sessions and I'm sure you would probably second that. Next slide, please. So the options that you have tonight to consider are option one, which would be reschedule the meeting. You would move the September 22nd meeting to Monday, September 21st.
It would just be a one-time deviation that we would apply to the already approved calendar for this year and then it would preserve the two regular meetings in September and then it would allow us to have full participation at the league Option two would be cancel the meeting and only have one regular meeting. I just want the council to be aware that it's not uncommon for other jurisdictions to cancel the meeting if that's something that you opt to do tonight We're not recommending anything from a staff level. It's your decision Next slide, please So there is no fiscal impact, and I'm here to answer any questions. And it is your decision to give us direction on how you would like to proceed. And we don't have any public speakers on this item virtually.
Thank you.
Question?
Yes, go
ahead. So just point of clarification. So my understanding is the actual conference begins on Wednesday.
Correct, but we have a workshop that's mandatory that would start at 8am. So you'd
have to check in the
night
before?
Yes and trying to get by 8am to Anaheim from here would just be very difficult.
0:57 – 1:1322 turns
Okay, and I remember last year what we did was we basically left directly from the meeting and drove down to Anaheim at basically the middle of the night.
And we checked in like one in the morning, I think it was like 12.
Yeah, it was very, very...
And we were up by seven to try to make it to the workshop. Yeah.
So... Okay, just want to make sure I remember correctly the sequence of events there so... I mean, I think I would be in favor of just moving it to Monday.
Me too. That was my thoughts too, is moving it to
Monday. My thoughts are if what looks like to be agendized items aren't heavy for that week, to actually move them all to our second meeting of the month. I guess what would be our only meeting of the month. And the reason I say that is having Monday night be our meeting where we're here plus Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday it's just a big commitment for four nights and I'm glad to do it if that's the consensus of the council but I think if we have the opportunity to move everything to one agenda night it would be favorably to me to have one night that week with my family.
Thoughts? I'm okay either way. If it's truly a light agenda, yeah, I would have no issue but my concern would be that I wouldn't want to put off, if we have some pressing issues, I wouldn't want to put them off until the next month or whatever.
Yeah.
That was my
thought too. And my idea was, I didn't mention it but of course if there is anything pressing and we need to make that a Monday meeting, I'm glad to do that absolutely. It sounds like I can make a motion on this. I will. I'll make a motion that we thus far plan to cancel our first, our second, our regular second Tuesday of the month meeting on that date which is again September 22nd? The 22nd. The 22nd.
Yes, that we cancel that and see if we can move all of our agenda items as necessary to that first meeting that we have in September. But with the caveat that if we are pressing agenda items that we do schedule a Monday meeting. A special meeting? A special meeting. A Monday special meeting which would be Monday, September 21st. I'll second
that. Can we have a motion and second, all in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you.
Moving on to our next item. Item number 9C appropriation of funds and approval of a CoStar real estate research subscription to support economic development activities.
One second, I'm going to put up a little PowerPoint. Well thank you Mayor, members of the Council. Before you today City Manager's Office is seeking the City Council's approval to appropriate funds from the General Fund Reserve to approve a CoStar Real Estate Research Subscription to support our economic development activities And to go into a little bit of a background on this, CoStar is a commercial real estate research and analytics platform.
The online app, it consolidates verified property ownership information, leasing information, property both residential and commercial sales information, and market data into a single tool. And the city would use this for a variety of reasons. It would support our economic development efforts Business attraction and also downtown revitalization objectives. And there's several cities that are using this currently, including the cities of Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo-Ventura and also Simi Valley, and I may be leaving out one other city.
So it's got a lot of support from the Ventura County community. So I'd like to go into Little background and overview just to continue on what I was mentioning. In our efforts and to the tools that we have currently, sometimes this information can be out of date. It could be incomplete or we'd have to get this information from multiple sources and this could be very time consuming.
Seeing as how economic development activities and work is spread across myself and the city manager, and also with ANGEL, an application like COSTAR can help consolidate research and get the data and analysis that would otherwise take a significant amount of time to accumulate. I'd like to go over what they actually provide. They provide what's referred to as true owner data, so we're going to get the actual owners who are behind these limited liability corporations, partnerships and then contacts for managers and brokers.
Assessor data that we do get from the county, we get property owner information and a mailing address. With CoStar, we'd get a lot more than that. We'd get contact information, phone information, email addresses and be able to contact individuals much more timely. In addition to those benefits, we'd get accurate and up-to-date information on vacancies, rents and the amount of time that a vacancy has been on the market for both residential and commercial data.
We would get sales and lease comps, and we could use these to support negotiations and incentive decisions. They also provide what they refer to as tenant intelligence so we would be able to see when leases would expire and be able to see which businesses are growing in the county, in the surrounding counties of L.A., in Santa Clarita, Santa Barbara And which ones are likely to relocate, so we can target those businesses to let them know that business Fillmore is an opportunity and an option.
So we also have the ability to take a look at market analytics and parcel data. We have access to of course current information but historical information which is really helpful when we're taking a look and we make zoning ordinance updates like we did with When we remove the one-third requirement in the downtown, you know, we can take a look at what the historical data shows us for vacancies in the downtown area. And then in subsequent years, we'll be able to compare that and see was this a success? Was this helpful?
So it could be very helpful in that regard. And then also in terms of regional business attraction, I can see us using CoStar to identify businesses that could be priced out of neighboring markets and we can attract to Fillmore. As mentioned before, we can take a look at when lease expirations are occurring regionally and which tenants in the surrounding areas are going to be likely looking at making a decision if they're going to continue with the lease in the community that they're in.
So it has a lot of benefits for us. And in terms of the first usage, the first project that staff had thought of, we have been wanting to convene a meeting of property owners in the downtown area and be able to invite them to sit with us Communicate and talk about what plans that they have for their buildings, for their property. And some of the ideas and strategies that the City Council is considering to help fill those vacancies and hopefully help to collaborate.
We were able to work with the individual at CoStar that we're working with and they provided us with contact information for those individuals so We're on our way to starting our first project there. In terms of the fiscal impact, we have options You know, we have the subscription model allows for a 12 month or one year term and staff is recommending a 12 month term. We do get a discount on that annual cost.
A 1-month subscription would cost the city $10,320 whereas A two-year agreement would cost the city $9,312 per year. We would not have to pay for that if we went with the two-year term. We wouldn't have to pay that up front. We would be billed each additional year and next year, you know, that annual cost would be included within the annual budget for that fiscal year.
Just to speak to its usage, it is a tool that I think we're going to be able to see and analyze its benefits after using for a couple of years. So you know, I do think that it'll go a great deal to help us in getting information that we don't have access to when we're entering into meetings with owners and prospective You know, developers will be able to have really important information at our fingertips that otherwise wouldn't be available to us and wouldn't be available to us if we were to try to call a broker or something like that. So I feel confidently that this is the tool that will really put us in more of a driver's seat in our economic development efforts and I'm happy to take any questions that the council has at this time.
Questions?
I do, thank you. Thank you for your presentation, Manny. My question is about...I know the information on the parcel and the sales data, right? That's information that this company gathers together and then sells this product but like the data on leasing, when a lease ends and which ones are likely to to move, you know, maybe to relocate. I guess the question is does this system depend in any kind of way on businesses putting info into it? Like electing to put info into it and if that does in any way like what's the penetration rate Sort of do we know like across the tri-county area or just in Ventura County, you know our businesses You know is all that data being put in by a lot of businesses. So that's sort of my questions I'm not sure if you know those answers but
yeah, you know what from from my understanding this this tool is the business leader for These type of research purposes and it is a situation where it's garbage in, garbage out. And it's my understanding that this information is very actively kept up for rents and current rents there are surveys that they do throughout the communities to get up-to-date information but it's my understanding that this information is kept up-to date.
Okay, interesting. Yeah, I'm just thinking like for leases, you know where's if I'm a business. That's data that needs to be reported or like you said, is it surveys? Oh I got a survey. Okay, I'll let this company know or whoever that I'm going to give them that data. So just a curiosity question as we delve in a little bit more of how much penetration are they getting?
Appreciate that. Thanks.
Yeah, so Manny I think we had had a discussion before about this particular software. So my main concern is and this should come as no surprise to people but you know we recently approved funds for signage to bring people to downtown and the cost just happened to be about $10,000 So of course, in my mind I'm thinking okay. So it's economics right? We only have so much money we don't have an infinite amount of money to spend on everything. So we have to make choices about what do we choose to fund and what do we choose not to fund.
And $10,000 could definitely find more signage towards downtown. So I guess my question really is here we're talking about spending about $10 thousand a year For two years is the recommendation. What kind of return on investment could we expect to see on that? In other words, okay so you're getting intelligence or getting more intelligence about who is doing what in the parcels within Fillmore.
How is the City of Fillmore going to see a return on that investment of $10,000 a year?
Yeah, so the return I think would come in multiple different ways. Hopefully if we're filling vacancies or accumulating additional sales tax it'll also help in other ways that are a little bit more difficult to quantify. For example with our grant applications they ask for relevant You know, data with regards to rents and these figures that we can get from COSTAR that can really help and assist our grant application. So in terms of fully quantifying that it can be a little challenging but at the same time I think if we are taking a look at our vacancies filled over time I think we can make a decision as a council whether or not this is meeting our return on investment.
1:13 – 1:2216 turns
Yeah, because I mean honestly the way I'm leaning is hey let's try it out for one year and see if we do get a return on investment. If not then I think you know at that point we can do an evaluation to say okay do we continue with this or do we not? And if we don't then what do we put that money towards that could help with economic development in the downtown area so that's my guess where I'm landing right now.
Appreciate that.
Thank you John for that. I was thinking the same thing, what's our ROI? In addition to that who are we sharing the data with?
So there are limitations on our ability to share the data. So really, it's primarily for our internal use and if there is any sharing of the data will be within the parameters that are set forth by COSTAR as much as we're allowed. I could see some situations where we'd want to potentially look and see what data can be shared potentially with our business roundtable for example But we would have to be careful to make sure that we're operating within the boundaries of our agreement with COSTAR.
With that too, it sounds like with the information and the data we're receiving from vacancies and leases, we are going to pretty much pull this and then say okay, we're gonna have five or ten different vacancies throughout the year. So do we share it with... I guess that's where I'm at. $10,000 and then I can see that we're gonna be spending that amount of money for the signage as mentioned earlier. Everybody sees it regardless if you want it or not, you're gonna see it I'm just thinking maybe a year would be best for us to kind of try it out. That's just from my take and to see if it's even worth it because $20,000 and being locked in for two years and we don't get as much as what we thought I think it would be not well used funds. Okay appreciate the comments
I have a few more too Mayor, just to comment on the comments. I appreciate we're having this discussion right now for John want to see what your definition is of return on investment as I think that's it's subjective and and I appreciate what but Manuel was saying about the little bit of startup time to get a feel for this data how to manipulate it well how to use it to our best advantage take some time you know so I'm yeah I'd like to hear that because I think it might take longer than a
year. Okay, so in my mind what I'm thinking is okay let's say that we spend the $10,000 for one year and after one year if we have zero vacancies that have been filled then clearly we're getting zero return on investment right? But let's say 10 let's say just I'm just picking a number out of thin air. Let's say we get 10 vacancies filled and that results in $20,000 worth of additional sales tax then i would say okay we're getting a good return on investment because we paid ten thousand dollars for this subscription but we're getting twenty thousand dollars worth of sales tax In Our business is going to see additional business that's going to pay for that $10,000. But that $10 thousand we don't look at it as every year.
That $10 thousand, we're investing $10 thousand in a sign that may last 10 years. So there the ROI is a little bit easier to hit rather than if we're spending $10 thousand every year We better make sure that we're getting our money's worth. Again, that's my opinion but I'm certainly open to hear other points of view.
Okay. Yeah. I appreciate that. So your definition of return on investments is the variable of vacancies measuring vacancy?
Ultimately, I think it would be more along the lines of how many sales tax revenue because in other words, We don't want just people to hopefully, yeah we don't wanna see a bunch of vacancies. That's very true but in terms of real dollars ultimately what we want is additional sales so that we can get additional sales revenue for the city to benefit our constituents right?
Yeah well my input or my comments on that is that I see the vacancies I just don't know You're going to be able to see that in a year. I think if there's, at the year mark, a measure of progress that is...I don't know, but there's a measure of progress and I'm sorry I don't have like dictated out my...you know what I mean? No,
I think your point is well taken. In other words, you know, I'm not saying hey Manny after a year you better show me $10,000 more worth of sales tax. If staff comes back to us and says, hey look this was a really beneficial tool. We can see the benefit you know and here are the five ways that we saw benefit. And we've got leads on getting 5 out of the 10 vacancies filled.
To me, that's a valid thing. We're making progress. Let's go for year two. Okay. Right? But I guess where I'm coming from is hey this is a new tool why are we committing to two years right off the bat okay right why are we committing to $20,000 right away when we could buy two signs that would last potentially another 10 to 20 years Right. Do you see what I'm saying? In other words, hey we need to step into this first cautiously before we commit to two years worth of funding for this. That's again...I'm open to listen to someone change my mind.
Yeah, I understand. And then my other comment was going to be on the signs, right? So seeing that there's the CoStar, this tool that we have to have better more savvy about the data out there about our properties and businesses and comings and goings and that sort of thing. But the objective to bring in business and then there is the science to bring in the visitor so They're, I wouldn't say they're apples and oranges. They are related but they are two different things so I just wanted to sort of point that out that I don't feel like it has it have to be an either or and I don think that's where you're going but I just wanted to make that statement there and I think they're two tools that work together in the same tool belt.
And... I'm open to one year. Okay. That's all I'm saying. All right. Council Member Rodriguez?
Christina, I like that you mentioned that because the data is going to be bringing businesses to come in and set up shop. And then the science is more for the customers to come in and support the businesses. So I like that you said that. And a lot of people heard that. Thank you.
If I was just to add one thing, you know this is a new tool for us and I can see us we're going to be learning as we go. It sounds like if we go ahead and go forward we're going to have great support from Coast Guard to learn about a lot of ways different ways to use this to support our efforts so but I totally understand completely understand what you're saying John and happy to get started with it whether it's for a year or two years But we're excited to utilize it if the council agrees.
Well, I was, to be honest after doing all the reading through the agenda and I came in here prepared to go with staff's recommendation but my buddy over here made a very good logical explanation of why one year makes more sense To me as well, now that I heard his explanation. So he changed my mind so I'm going to be leaning towards the one year because I think he makes a good point on the return on investment and seeing that and it's hard just that running through my mind is hard to change my mind on that going for the two years. I'd like to go into one year and just see how staff uses then hear your feedback how useful it is and how you guys have been using it for that one year. And then we could go from there and say, hey yeah like you said that we've done A, B, C, D and it's a really great tool or you know we weren't the other way so I'd be in favor of going for the one year.
So that way we get you at the ball rolling on this and you can start learning the new towing
Mayor, it sounds like you've made a motion.
1:22 – 1:3220 turns
Does anybody
want to make
the motion
for me? I'll make the motion for one year.
Second? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes unanimously. Thank you Manny for all your hard work and Erica and staff. I really appreciate it and prove us wrong. Moving on to 9D. Introduction of Ordinance 26-997 amending Fillmore Municipal Code Section 2-04-020 to update the powers of the City Manager, to allow the City Manager to apply for grants.
Mayor and Council I'll be presenting this item. On occasion, there'll be grant opportunities but they require council authorization by adoption of a resolution and there isn't time to get that on the agenda. So staff is recommending that the City Council adopt the proposed ordinance to revise the powers of the city manager that are listed in the Municipal Code to specifically authorize the city manager to apply for grants When the grants are consistent with the City Council's adopted legislative platform and require either no match of local funds or up to $250,000. But of course the city manager would make sure that there's room in the budget to find that money. So that is the recommendation that this ordinance be introduced to give the council more flexibility to apply to grants when they find them.
So I noticed that the language is very specific about the legislative platform. I didn't see anything about the council's adopted goals? Is that not part of this or how does that fit?
I mean, usually the legislative platform is based off of the council's goals and so they would be consistent. It's something that's reviewed annually by the council and so it's revised as necessary to make sure it's consistent. Did the city manager want to add to that?
And I can tell you from like The legislative platform right now is consistent with your goals. So there's a section for each goal on the legislative platform so it wouldn't contradict itself.
I think it's a really good idea because sometimes when we have to come back to council, we lose valuable time where you can be Staff can be working on the grant proposal already and sometimes the early bird gets the worm. And if we got that earliest jump, it makes sense to give you those powers I would think. As long as Council Member Garnica says, as long as it's within Why did we choose $250,000 in particular? Is that something that's similar to other municipalities or what was the thinking there?
No, we just thought it seemed like a number that the council could be comfortable. That if that was the match required of the city that the staff would be able to find room in the budget for it and that you know wouldn't reduce other expenses that the council is planning on. More than that we would need to find a way to make sure the council was on board with spending that kind of money.
But if you want to make it higher you can make it higher.
No, I guess my thinking on that was just matching funds up to $250,000 is the way language reads. Interesting. Yeah. OK.
Okay, I'm on board with it. I'm supportive and I appreciate staff bringing this forward and our staff making a real effort. I can see like in this last year to really provide resources and time to look for grants. And so anything that I think that we can do as a council to help precipitate that is great.
I agree. All right.
I am making a motion. It's an ordinance so I Recommend our City Council approve the introduction of ordinance number 26-997 An ordinance of the City Council of the city of Fillmore, California amending the Fillmore Municipal Code section 2.0 0 4 point 020 to update the powers of the city manager, to allow the city manager to apply for grants consistent with the city's adopted legislative platform.
That is the language.
Okay we got a motion second? I'll second. Any motion second all in favor? Aye. Okay any opposed? Looks like the motion passes unanimously thank you.
Thank you.
Moving on to another 9e adoption of policy number 123-adopt the trail program
Thank you, Mayor. Next slide please. So what is the Adopt-A-Trail program? It's a community stewardship initiative allowing residents, businesses, schools and nonprofits to assist with litter remover and trail beautification on designated city trail segments. I want to make it clear that this is just supplementing not replacing the existing city maintenance efforts. And so who can participate? Residents, businesses, schools Service clubs and nonprofits.
The commitment would be for a one-year period with cleanups at least once every three months, and this is aligning with the City Council goals of enhanced park recreation, improved public communication and engagement. To be eligible, individuals must be 18 or older. Non-profits, schools, youth groups, community organizations and businesses. The permitted activities would be litter and debris removal, removing graffiti, damage infrastructure and safety concerns.
Prohibit activities that are any vegetation removal, repairs, use of chemicals or operating city equipment or entering into restricted areas. The supplies and recognition organization would supply the apparel and gloves, and then city will provide the trash bags. And the adopted segments will be marked with official signage which the city would purchase. The fiscal impact would be minimal, which would be the cost of providing the trash bags and the signage itself.
Staff would just administer the program and coordinate it. There's no purchase of equipment, vehicles or additional tools. In order to participate there is an application we already have if you approve this tonight ready to go, which would have liability waivers agreement provisions. This item is exempt from CEQA. Next slide. The policy details the whole process. There is an agreement that has already been reviewed by the City Attorney's Office, which you would be authorizing me to execute that agreement on a yearly basis and we have designated Juana Garcia for my office to be the one overseeing the program. I also would be working with our GIS provider there is a solution That we can deploy in GIS and the vision long term would be for us to publicize which segments of the trail have been adopted by which organization that way no double adoption happens or if like a nonprofit is You know, wanting to adopt a specific section of the trail that's already been adopted by another one that can be publicly available for them.
So if you approve that tonight I will be working with our JS consultant bringing this forward so that we can have that layer. And that tool available for the public. I do want to recognize that there is a segment of a trail by that has been adopted by Sir Optimus, however we did not have a policy in place so that's why we're coming to you tonight so that we have a policy. There's a process where we will just make sure that you know the volunteers are Safe, number one.
We're so grateful if they are willing to assist us and again this will not take away the maintenance that's already been done by our staff is just augmenting it And we can publish once it's, you know, once we have people adopting the specific trail sections. We could promote that on social media. We could even have a ceremony with the council members as well if that's something you'd like to move forward with. That concludes my presentation. Happy to answer any questions.
Thank you so much. I think it's a great idea. I am a member of the Lions Club too and we go out once in a while, every Saturdays and pick up the litter from the trails. So it's, I think it's a good idea to promote.
1:32 – 1:4120 turns
How long ago was the adoption? Do you know? Just out of curiosity.
It's been a while, I think it was probably before my time if I remember correctly.
And that's the only one we know of
so far? Correct. Yes there is a sign out there in the bike path. Once this is, if you approve it tonight then we'll go back and make sure that they comply with the policy. We'll have an application in place and then we'll make sure that we continue to promote it as well just to get some traction in the community, engage the community. Okay
great okay thank you.
Anybody else?
Yeah, I think it's a great idea. Great idea and I love the idea of promoting it and just the diversity of organizations and youth serving groups. Just a great opportunity for folks to... We have great volunteers already in the city and I know there's lots of people out there who would like to get involved as a way to dip your toe into community service and a great example for young people too.
Thank you. Okay, can I have a motion?
I'd like to move the motion to the City Council to adopt the resolution number 26-4123, establishing the city of Fillmore. Adopt a trail program by adopting policy number 123-Adopt a Trail Program Policy Rules and Procedures, authorize a city manager or designee to administer the adopted trail program and approve executive renewal, amend, suspend, and terminate adopted trail agreement.
Okay, we have a motion second? I'll second. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Moving on to 9F a resolution of the City Council of the city of Fillmore approving a professional service agreement with Well Done Financial Services Inc. Approving a deposit and reimbursement agreement with Williams Homes Inc. And authorizing staff to proceed with the formation of a community facilities district number seven.
Hello. Good evening, council members. Mayor Mendez and Debra Cavaletto, finance director for 9F. I have the following presentation to provide an overview of the items staff is requesting for approval this evening. Great. So background purposes. So we're looking at a CFD formation for Creekside and CFD number seven. And what happened in February 2026, Williams Homes Approach the city to explore CFD funding ideas and under the Melrose Act of 1982. In April 2026, we evaluate the city evaluated included that as an appropriate mechanism to fund public improvements and minimize any general fund impacts. The governing policy for this, the City Council has adopted goals and policies on May 14th 2019 which is the criteria and procedures that we are using And tonight's action is to authorize the professional services agreement, and also the deposit agreement with Williams Homes and reimbursement agreement at Williams Homes.
And direct staff to proceed with the formation. I want to stress that this does not mean a CFD will be formed this evening, it's just looking at the process. The financing team that we're looking at this evening, that we are looking for approval will be first Columbia Capital Management. They'll be doing the financial advisory services for the CFD, not to exceed approximately $75,000.
Al Shire and Winter. Winter? Winder, Winder. Wind, Wine. Always get the wind and wine. I'm like well wine would be good too right? So for our legal services for CFDs And that would be up to $100,000 which is developer reimbursed. Well then financial services will also be providing the rate and method of apportionment special tax analysis and annual administration.
In addition as required we would look at additional professionals as appraisals underwriters that may be retained as needed but of course following the city's purchasing requirements. Financial protections for the city, the deposit of reimbursement agreement with Williams Homes will cover all the formation costs. That is legal advisory consulting engineering appraisal services no general fund impact they are developer funded.
Tonight's action again does not establish a CFD, does not authorize special taxes or authorize any bond issuance. All future actions require separate City Council approval The formation process, there's seven key steps for this to occur. First is the kickoff. If tonight we are approved to proceed, we'll have a kickoff to look at the objectives, look at the eligible facilities, needs and timeline.
Then it comes to the background research, identify the public improvements, ensure who owns the property ownership of that area and confirm landowner election eligibility. Special tax. That includes PORFORMA, the tax model as well as looking at overlapping data debt analysis. The rate and method of apportionment, again the draft, the rate and method which tells how much those special taxes would be in that particular area.
Then we'll have a CFD public report with the cost estimate bond projections and annual tax schedules. Then of course documentation and recording, petitions, consent, notice ballots and recording the boundaries of course. And then seven for any bond related issuance that we need for support that would be the official statement financing documents and bond closing.
The CFD formation timeline as you know we started February we were approached In April, we evaluated. Tonight, we are requesting approval to proceed if the approval is done this evening. We then in between August and October, we go through the kickoff research analysis. November and December, we would go through the CFD report, return on investment, and public hearing.
If that again goes through according to the schedule, in January, this is where you're projecting to come back to the council for the CFD approval for formation. And then by of December of 2027, we would then look at bond issuance. So this evening staff recommendation adopt Resolution 2641-24 which authorized the city manager to execute agreements with Columbia Capital and will then financial services approve the deposit and reimbursement agreement with William Holmes, ensuring net zero cost to the general fund.
Proceed with CFD Formation 7 that is subject to further City Council approval at each required stage. Authorize additional consultants as needed per the purchasing requirements and authorize the city manager to have the authority to move ahead with this intention of this resolution. As stated, there's no net impact to the general fund. All costs are reimbursed by Williams Homes through the deposit and reimbursement agreement.
Upon approval we will staff and financing team proceed with the boundary evaluation analysis information documents. And as stated previously return the council at each required phase. So I would thank you for your time and consideration so we're here for your questions.
Thank you, Debra for your presentation.
Yeah, thank you. So I just for those who are listening in so what would be the alternative? And I think I know the answer but I just want to make sure that it's clear to the public if we did not do the CFDs then what would be the alternative for these homes that are being built
In terms of like.
So in other words, so again if my understanding is incorrect please correct me but my understanding is basically by doing going down this path essentially what we're what's gonna happen is there will be HOA fees that are gonna be charged to the homeowners? Is that correct?
Are there HOE fees, as I recall? That's what it is now. Melrose. So you'll see that assessment on your card.
Right and so the alternative would be again correct me if i'm wrong that the cost of those fees would be built into the homes themselves is the other way to do it right so in other words essentially what we're doing is we're saying okay instead of building it into the initial costs of the home right so the price of the home is higher where Essentially dropping the price of the home today so that the fees then get paid out over time. Is that correct?
And not for the cities?
No, not for the city. For the people that are buying, right?
That is correct. I would like to say though that these are not HOA fees and so it's really important not to use that terminology. I don't think Creekside has an HOA. So yeah, not currently. They're Melrose assessments that are special taxes but right it will be in lieu of a higher purchase price that they will The city would sell these bonds and they were repayable over a certain period of time, and then they will no longer be levied.
1:41 – 1:4912 turns
Okay. Again, I just wanted to clarify that because if someone's listening that don't understand what is essentially the mechanism is, I want to make sure that was clear for and again using the right terminology Melrose that these fees essentially what we're doing is for the people that are purchasing it has nothing to do well a lot to do with us but essentially what the developer is doing is their path dropped the price of the home today in lieu of paying for the fees up front versus paying them out over time.
Okay,
thank you. Thank you for the clarification. Yeah,
thank you for asking
and just Just to add add to that I believe and thank you Deborah for your presentation And I appreciate the slides and I appreciate the clarity that's included in them and it's helpful for us as decision makers policymakers is the The need for infrastructure to be built, that these homes are going in and infrastructure must be built and that infrastructure will be used by future developments in the North Fillmore specific plan. But regardless anyone living there needs to have that infrastructure in place water sewer etc.
And so that Through meetings and understanding the financial mechanisms, this decision that we're making tonight is a city decision because also we want to ensure that these funds to pay for this infrastructure Is not particularly a blow to our general fund. And so I think that's important to note too, that we're being stewards of the city's funds and the city's finances in considering this decision and understanding that I think is important too. That's part of our goal, one of our main goals here as council members. That's a good point.
Thank you.
Council Member Deese? Okay, I agree with both of you. Thank you for making the clarification Council Member Garnica and way to a good explanation and I agree in it's we're good stewards of the public money and taxes so with that being said I would like to see if I could entertain a motion
Okay, Tiffany do I have to read or can I say one through five? Okay all right well I recommend that the City Council adopt items 1 through 5 in this agenda item.
Second. Okay we got a motion and second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes dancing. Thank you Deborah.
I thank you. Thank you all
moving on to item 9g Creekside track 6 0 5 3 lot 1 3 4 access easement agreement and license agreement with HOA
Good evening, honorable mayor and City Council. I'm Roxanne your city engineer so this is the Access easement agreement and license agreement with Williams-Holmes Creekside that we just talked about on the CFD improvement. It's the same improvement, they are forming an HOA which is why the city attorney was being clear like these aren't HOA fees there may be HOA fees but they won't be related to the Melrose District.
And so one of the topics of this is that The HOA will have some improvements that are private improvements that will be on public properties. So all of the parkways on the public streets, that are in the public streets will be maintained by the HOA and not the city and not a landscape maintenance district but the HOA. And there are other things, there's an abandoned oil well it's what they the state calls a orphaned oil well it's not really owned by Williams Homes or the city, it's long ago abandoned by the person that owned the oil well. It's empty, it never produced oil but there is an oil well vent cone that they're required to have in place and maintain in place and it's in the middle of one of the new public streets.
And so what we had said is the vent cone itself is the property owners to handle and not put on the public to handle. So they're putting a manhole lid over the vent cone and then venting it out It's going to look like more a trail marker. We have a pole with, like, an eagle on it or something that they're designing for final design that looks like the trail markers that we're putting on the bike path that'll be in one of the streets and that will be a private improvement in the public street That's what this license agreement covers and it basically sets out the authority for the HOA to enter and maintain those.
And so that's one of the two items. The other is At the back side of the tract, there's our operating well number 8. And there's an access road that goes from Good Enough Road across to well number 8 that's also a driveway to the estate lot 134 up on the hill, right? So they have an estate lot that has to use our city property to access the lot. And so that's what the second agreement is about. It's a it's an agreement with the owner of lot 134 when it sells right now, it's Williams homes but it'll travel with the property, it'll give them access rights and utility rights to get their gas in Edison and water and sewer across our property. and up to that house ongoingly in perpetuity, and also has some limitations on how they can use our well-access road.
So they're not allowed to park vehicles on the access road, and they're not allowed to store anything on the access road. And so it's keeping, it's protecting, it's giving them the authority to use the access road for access but only access, and utilities which are only underground, and maintain Appropriate well access for our trucks and you know everything that we need to do It's always going to be clear access to the well at the end of the road They're gonna go to the end of the road and get to their house. They have a big driveway on their property They shouldn't have to park in our well-accessed road And this agreement kind of handles both of those things You can use this access agreement because you can't be landlocked, right? But you can't park and store stuff and act like it's your property so Those are the big points in these main agreements.
You have the full agreements attached to the staff report and the full staff report for you, and that concludes my presentation. Any questions?
Thank you so much for a very informative presentation. And I have no questions. It was very well, all the information is there. So thank you so much. You're welcome. Anybody else? Can I have a motion?
1:49 – 2:0511 turns
I move that the authorized city manager to execute and record the lot 134 access and utility easement agreement for restricted access and utility services through the City Well number 8 Access Road on parcel E of final map 6053 in a form approved by the city attorney, and authorize the city manager to execute and record a license and covenant agreement with Creekside Home Owners Association HOA.
For the HOA to construct, own and maintain certain facilities related to the abandoned oil well within city street. Within the tract and private storm drain improvements within the city well number eight access road on parcel E of final map 6053. And to maintain private landscaping in city right-of-way on Goodenough Road and in track public streets.
Thank you. Any other motion? Second? I'll second. Motion second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, Roxanne.
Moving on to item 9H consideration of an extension to the off-site improvement agreement for public improvements for the People Self Help Housing Corporation project located at Santa Clara Street and Palm Avenue.
Thank you. I'm going to help you out with this, it's going to be the Roxanne show for a few items here so I'm just gonna hang out. So now we're at people self help housing and this is on Santa Clara kind of between Santa Clara and Ventura Street or highway 126 between Palm and the alley next to it. So this is basically a reapproval of an agreement that you already did approve, so in March we were working with People's Self-Help Housing, we had all of the identified, you know, getting through the improvement plans and we're going through the documentation and we brought to you both the license agreement which you authorized the city manager approve In a form approved by the city attorney, as well as an off-site improvement agreement which you also agreed with.
And what this off-site improvement agreement does is it establishes that when they build this development they're going to be building certain public improvements. Public streets, public parking, public sidewalk and this requires them to post public improvement bonds and labor material bonds for the public improvements so if they start building and then they flop And they leave town, we can cash those bonds and finish the public improvements. And it also lays out you know the rules of how they'll be built and then given to the city and how this city will accept them and exonerate the bond so that's what an offsite improvement agreement is this one was reviewed and approved in March. And then when People Self-Help got their funding, they said oh we can't possibly build it by the time frame set forth.
Can you move it back a year? So they wanted us to move the sunset date from 27 to 28. So the big change tonight is moving it from December of 2027 to December of 2028. Otherwise, it's essentially unchanged. It's the same agreement that you saw in March. So any questions?
I have no questions. Anybody else? No questions. Okay,
seeing no questions may I have a motion? I'd like to move the motion that the City Council authorize the city manager or her designee to execute an extension of the off-site improvement agreement OIA to give the developer an additional year to complete the off-site improvements.
Okay,
I'll second. Do we have a motion and a second?
We had Daisy from People Self Help, but she was there just to answer any questions.
Okay thank you. So we have a motion second all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Seeing none motion passes unanimously thank you. Okay, 9I. Rejection of bid protest and award of contracts for construction of projects specification number 24-03A and 2403B pavement rehabilitation project and preservation projects.
Finally get to something fun. Good evening again Mayor and City Council, right? So we're going to talk about doing street work this is my agenda will go over the project background scope bid results fiscal impacts and your staff recommendation this one has a lot of staff recommendations so it'll be one of those can I do the motion A through B So here's the background. This project is the culmination across two fiscal years, so in 24-25 we were going to do a Surrey project using what's called CRISA non-STIP funds with the coronavirus relief funds that were originally federal funds that cost a lot of money to spend and we were like $300,000 doesn't really it would federalize the whole million dollar project and it wouldn't really be worth $300,000.
And so we're not really interested in that and I had asked BCTC if they could do anything to localize the federal fund so that it's State funding or VCTC funds and they said no, not really. And then like a towards the end of the year they came back and they said oh Caltrans just said that they're going to localize these CRRSA funds and make them CRRSA non-STIP. The STIP is the Surface Transportation Improvement Program at the federal level And so they took it out of the step, and they made it available locally. And I said yes! We want $300,000 in Fillmore. And then that delayed our 24-25 program but we got that $300,000 and we coupled it with $300k of RMRA money to do $600k worth of slurry seal work. But by time we got that funding agreement in place with the state We're now into 2526.
And so we just combined the projects, and we are spending even more SB1 money on the overlay project. So you've got over a million dollars of the Road Maintenance and Recovery Act, also known as SB1. So that's about three years of that money that we're spending. And then VCTC Article 8 TDA, Transportation Development Funds, of $530,000. grant from Article 3 with VCTC under the TDA that dates all the way back to like 2014, where we were going to build a curb ramp behind City Hall to improve accessibility. But it was underfunded because it included half a mile of sidewalk that we don't really need. And so we've repackaged that and gotten their approval. And we've included in the rehabilitation project this year on that $68,000 grant funding To build the curb ramps behind City Hall and to fill that with the TDA funds.
So there's a consolidation of a bunch of different things going on in these, so now we have a combined FY 24-25 plus 25-26 annual street programs that include One construction contract for street rehabilitation and one for street preservation. So that's the background, the scope of work. I'll start with street rehabilitation. Here's the street list we also are going to grind an overlay Shields Park parking lot can I get an amen.
I know it's overdue. There's miscellaneous asphalt repairs around the city, some curb and gutter sidewalk and ADA curb ramps. And then we had included in the bid an additive alternate to pave back Santa Clara Street which we're going to talk about in a minute here where we're going to put in a new water line to finish what the Mountain View Apartments started by replacing that old cast iron line.
But we bidded in the waterline project, and we bidded in the street project to see what would be more cost effective and the efficacy of it. It's actually there's more things in the water line one because as they finish the design of the water line, they're like oh, there's another manhole, and there's another curb ramp. And so there's more things going on in there that are included in that bid, and that was bid by Toro. And also to have the same contractor build the water line and then adjust the utilities and pave So there's not coordination between two contractors and two project schedules. Just the efficacy of doing that is smarter, given the tight bid that we got on it. So we are recommending that we reject that at all and not pave Santa Clara Street with this project.
But these streets plus Shields Park and the other things which I'll show you pictures of, here's the ADA parking stall that we've re-scoped to go behind City Hall so that picture there on the left is the location. The big building on the far left is City Hall where we are right now. There's that dirt lot behind us And where that red thing is, the idea is to remove a portion of that wood lattice fence and just around leaving the bench in the trash cans and the hedge behind it there. Just create two connections to the parking lot from the sidewalk at grade and then build two ADA parking stalls on concrete in the dirt.
And so we'll add ADA accessible Straight into the Promenade, and then you can come up and around and into the City Hall very easily. So that's the ADA parking stall. We've also some of the miscellaneous repairs. There's that bad patch of pavement at B Street just north of 126. That's in here. The damage to the decorative plank-style concrete under the green bridges at Mountain View? That's in here to get fixed.
And then that's the main parts of the street rehabilitation contract and then the street preservation contract is a separate bid, separate contract. We're gonna do three City Hall parking lots with almost 130,000 square feet of parking lot area. River Street from C Street to Clearwood Street which is kind of like you know from The west side of town all the way to pass Coal Creek to the east side of town, right? So it's like almost all of River Street from C Street and East. And then all of the neighborhood streets below that full segment from C Street East are in this program to either get a slurry seal or a cape seal including north of River Street, Bridlewood, Sandalwood, Elkwood as well as Mountain View Street all the way up to the green bridges where we're going to repair the pavement at the Green Bridge And then also Heritage Valley Parkway itself from the circle at Central Avenue, not including that circle because it's kind of a newer circle anyways.
But all the way over to Clearwood Street through the circle at Mountain View. And so there's a lot of streets in the street preservation. About 725,000 square feet of slurry plus 247,000 square feet of cape seal which is thicker than slurry seal where we put down the what's called an ARAM asphalt rubber aggregate membrane. So this is all of the streets. There's quite a few streets we're going to get to. The green is the Surrey or cape And then I wanted to point out.
We're doing Orange Grove Avenue. I don't know if you've driven it, but Sonic just paved from the freeway up to the alley and then we're going to pick it up from the alley up to Santa Clara Street so all of Orange Grove Avenue will be nice and new as the Sonic opens up for business. So that's the street map. That's the street rehabilitation plus the street preservation projects. Both contracts is what we're talking about. I know it's a lot of money. I wanted to be clear. We're doing a lot of work. Right, so the project structure like I mentioned is two contracts. We have 2403A which is the rehab, the overlay that A-RAM, which is asphalt rubber aggregate membrane, which is like rubberized really sticky chip seal and then the slurry will go on top of it.
That's when I say cape seal, it's the chip seal with the slurry on top of it but we're also doing the A-RAM underneath paving sometimes because It's a good blocker for cracks reflecting through the new paving. So we have the added at all for Santa Clara that we're not going to include in the award and the ADA ramp behind City Hall that is included in the work, and then the slurry seal contract so doing them as two separate bids for one it's a cost efficiency we don't have to pay the paving prime A markup on the slurry sub because it's always a sub anyways. So we're just going to directly contract with the slurry vendor But also it keeps the CRISA even though it's not federalized It's still a funding agreement with the state of California and the scope of work in that funding agreement was just the Surrey project so it keeps it consistent with the funding agreement language by not combining the contracts, so that was the thinking And here's the bid results drumroll please.
I think I need to talk a little bit on the street rehabilitation we got a low bid of 1.256 which was within budget, actually below what we thought it was going We got a bid protest from Toro Enterprises. They usually are right there in the thick of it at the low end, and they called up to say, hey, Planet Bids wouldn't let our bid get through. Oh, our frontier internet failed 20 minutes before the bids were due, and since we had Internet failure, we had a better bid and you should really reject all bids and re-bid the project so that we can bid it because we would have been of more value. And maybe they would have but not a lot. J.H. and Toro like sometimes they're within 60 bucks of each other I mean they're usually pretty competitive.
Toro said that their bid was enough lower that they really wanted us to reject all bids and re-bid. They weren't asking us to accept the late bid because we can't do that But to delay the project and not get the expenditures, there's some coordination. I need it to go in time with the Surrey project because we're going to keep them. They have to go together.
I don't think it would add value to reject bids and re-bid. And we've already responded to the bid protest and said that we're recommending that we reject their invitation to start over. And so that meets J&H, General Engineering Contractors, the low bid. We've done work with them in Fillmore before. They have a good reputation. They're very responsive and I was happy with.
Four bids we would have had five if Toro got theirs in but they had a problem with their internet provider. Street preservation, we got two. I wasn't expecting as many. There's usually these two are the ones that are the sub to everybody all the time in this area so not surprising that we didn't get more than two and they're competitive and they came in as expected for the slurry pricing as well. So we're recommending to move forward with awards of contract We had estimated the project costs about 2.2 million that was when Santa Clara was involved so definitely taking Santa Clara out, so we're projecting a total cost of 2.035 broke down here as seen on the table you have this in your staff report. I won't get into the details of the numbers unless you have questions, but we were fully funded and the recommendations are plenty.
A through F it's basically approve the budget be put into the street fund moved from other pockets that we have and put into the street fund reject the bid protest approved J&H as our contractor for the street work Approved pavement coatings is the contractor for the preservation contract, and then authorized contingencies in the authority of the city manager on both of those contracts. Because during construction things can come up and it's nice to be able to move in real time and address things and make it nice.
So that concludes my report and I'll answer any questions.
2:05 – 2:1323 turns
I don't have any questions comment. My gosh, it sounds like there was a lot of work to that So kudos to you and your team Thank You Roxanne and I'm very happy to see that A lot of this is gonna get done Especially a lot of the ADA and Shields Park. I'm like very very excited about that But yeah, just just some kudos to your team for all the hard work they did thank
you. Oh
Likewise, Roxanne, very impressive. Very thorough job on the presentation and great. It's good to see stuff happening on the streets of Fillmore.
Yes I agree. Thank you, thank you, thank you for someone who's constantly driving into Shields Park.
My
car is my rims. Thank you. And also thank you Joe left but I had been pressing him. Oh there you are. Thank you for bringing in that B Street corner by 711 and 126 man that one just gets so many cars every day. Appreciate it. Thank you for the presentation and also just a reminder again to the community if anyone's watching, looking at Riverwalk neighborhood and also the bridges right? And like so much work going on in these streets. Again that's a reminder that the Surrey, Cape, right? This is preservation and what that means again is that they may not be the worst. They are not the worst condition streets in Fillmore but by doing these lower cost preservations it keeps them from being becoming really bad streets and costing the city a lot more later so um and as you know through all of your all of the analysis at the engineers department You know, this happens to be what we have the money for.
What we're using the money for in this case but again as things build up again you know we're going to look to another section of the city also to do this preservation so.
I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm so tickled and proud and delighted that you heard me. Thank you. Exactly what she said.
Thank you. May I have a motion please?
All right, I will move all the agenda items that are listed in this staff report. These are items one through seven. Actually am I right?
A through F.
Oh, I'm sorry. I was on the wrong page here. A through F. I'll move all items A through F.
Okay we got a motion and second?
And I'll second.
Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Roxanne. Thank you. And
moving on to item 9J. Appropriate funds and award of contract for construction of project specification 25-08 Santa Clara Street Waterline Improvement Project.
I feel like I should have a wardrobe change or something but OK. Good evening. Let's keep going. All right so I alluded to this in the last one. Here is your project overview. We have that aged water line 1955 cast iron pipe. And so this project supports reliability, future development and infrastructure improvements. And I want you to keep that in mind because the financial slides on this one aren't as happy.
The portion was already replaced by Mountain View Apartments as part of their development and we're going to connect to that new portion of the pipe and install a new pipe the rest of the way down to the end of the street And Will Dan did the design engineering. It's basically, this is the scope. The water line goes from the end of Santa Clara Street and up to join the new line that was built by the Mountain View Apartments which is the yellow line that just showed up.
And then the blue line is what we're going to do. It's going to go down and this line crosses the creek and goes up beyond that, and we're going all the way to the backflow perimeter before the line goes private with our new public line. And so the bid results on this, we got eight bids which was a lot of interest. I was really and they're actually pretty tight going. I mean that's not a big spread for eight bids right? And so Toro was the low bid on this one. We were able to tell them don't cry too hard. We're still giving you some work.
And we had thought that this would cost around $430,000 including the paving on Santa Clara Street. We were wrong and one of the reasons... The main reason for that cost being so far off was that it was a unit price on the linear foot that we had on the pipe install was way too low and all the bidders had it like on the order Three times what we thought it would cost. Because I think we had it like $80 linear foot, and they're like, it's 160 or whatever it is. It was at least two times to 2 and 1⁄2 times more what the engineer's cost estimate said. So that was our miss. And I've talked to my design team about it. Pipeline installation, I think that it's because this is an old street. There's a lot of utilities.
And I think all the bidders are going, oh no we have dug in Fillmore before. We know you've got River Rock. We know you've got all kinds of unknown things that just happened. We know it's not gonna be blow and go and get it in normal time so we kind of used a normal time bid And the bidder said, oh we've worked in Fillmore before. That's going to take some time and they did it appropriately. So I've been talking to my design team like we got to keep in mind where we are and be better at this pricing. So always sure to call it out when I've got a miss. That was a little bit of a miss but it's an important project. It needs to be done and we were able to identify the funding so we've got the 555 as the construction cost plus the soft costs plus 8% contingency because once again Once you open up the ground in an old part of town like that, everything's old over there.
And then we are going to be doing the paving and some drainage improvements to make the street drain better and some curb ramp replacements. And so it's good to have some contingency on the project. So we're looking at again appropriating funds moving. Do the paving and the paving project, we are going to take those TDA Article 8A funds and put them into this project to pay for the paving with paving funds. And not out of the water enterprise.
And then on the rest that will come out of the Water Replacement Reserve Fund and be moved into the Water CIP fund. And so with that appropriation, we can award contract to Toro and authorize the city manager for the contingencies So that concludes my report. Any questions?
Great presentation, detailed. Thank you so much.
Roxanne I do have a question. You mentioned about paving and everything and making it. So are we planning to add a sidewalk on both ends or no sidewalks?
We're not building new sidewalks.
OK.
Right, this is going to be new pavement, grinded pave. But where there are sidewalks going around onto Highway 126, we're going to bring the curb ramp up to code. And we are actually putting a new curb ramp on the bridge side at that same intersection. So that's why there's two curb ramps now.
OK, that's kind of what I wanted
to hear. Yeah, because there's a little bit of sidewalk that crosses the bridge if you can call it sidewalk. But there's no transition down so we're putting a ramp there. We are making that more accessible
2:13 – 2:3110 turns
Yeah, just just a question on the on the funding so See here we're moving from the water replacement reserve fund into the water CIP correct okay, so So our water CIP fund is still I think on the low end, right? This is with one that we're waiting for reimbursement from the sewer line. FEMA, we're waiting for FEMA. Hopefully FEMA will come through. So I guess my question is then if that comes through are we dipping deep just curious into our Water Replacement Reserve Fund to take this and will that be
replenished? Council Member Villaseñor it's actually the Sewer Enterprise that we're waiting for the reimbursement from FEMA. Thank you. Thank
you for that correction.
Yeah, it's reclaimed water not water. This is potable water. That's right this is water. You got me too I was like yeah? Thank you Erica. That for if it was because reclaimed water lines are in the sewer enterprise but this is potable water so this is actually a water enterprise. Okay all right
thank you Thank you. Okay, any more questions? No. Can I have a motion?
Yes. I move that the City Council approve the budget adjustment and all items A through C so I don't want to read all of that.
Okay we got a motion. I'll second. Okay all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously thank you.
Thank you. And
item 9K Award of Professional Services Agreement to Will Dam Financial Services for a Municipal Funding Feasibility Study for Parks, Recreation and Downtown Economic Vitality.
Thank you Mayor. Next slide please. So tonight we're going to, this is the agenda of all the items where we will cover. So we're gonna go through the background on purpose, a procurement process, why are we recommending well-done financial services? The scope of work and the project team, project schedule, the cost then fiscal impact, staff recommendations and next steps and then you'll have an opportunity to ask any questions.
So to provide you with a background and purpose, the council directed staff at the December 9th meeting when we were providing you with a progress report of all the items that we had worked during that calendar year last year. Aligned with all the goals that you've set for us and you directed us that for this calendar year 2026 That the staff evaluates sustainable funding mechanisms for parks recreation downtown revitalization and long-term economic development The study is the direct result of that direction that we've received.
The fiscal context, the city still remains on fiscally stable but faces increased operating costs. We have aging infrastructure, deferred maintenance also and influen- I'm sorry. Inflationary pressures and long-term maintenance of parks, recreation facilities and economic development assets requires funding beyond the general fund. So you're all aware that although The budget was approved. We've had these conversations with all of you, council that moving along this particular fiscal year it does look our numbers don't look tight and long term if we continue to have the escalating cost of operations then our reserves will not be able to sustain what our operation needs are and that's why we are here tonight with this study The study objectives will be analyzing the feasibility of funding mechanisms including district formation, revenue measures and bonding capacities for parks and recreation in downtown economic vitality.
And evaluate the citywide sales tax feasibility. I also want to make it clear that by you authorizing, if you decide to do that tonight this study, the approval of this agreement does not commit the city to any tax measures. Any assessment districts, any bonds, any ballot initiatives. Any future funding mechanism requires a separate City Council consideration prior to that implementation. So we're just at a stage where we're exploring what the different avenues would be and then the concise report would come back to you with the different options at a later time so that you can then assess and Figure out which mechanism you would like for us to move forward with The district for parks and recreation. We're looking at a district formation Revenue measures funding capacity analysis and for the downtown economic vitality we're looking at property and business improvement districts enhanced infrastructure financing districts sales tax and just revitalization funding feasibilities Next slide, please The procurement process was a pretty lengthy process.
We started on March 30th at that time. We used our electronic procurement software, Planet Bids where a request for proposal was released. Questions were due by April 10th. Proposals were due by April 30th so we had a thirty day window for those proposals to come back to us We received three proposals. Interviews started on the week of May 14th and then tonight we're here to request you for your approval.
The firms that responded were Well Done Financial Services, which is the one we're recommending tonight. Shining Light Consulting and then Precision Consulting. The evaluation criteria qualifications was one of the main Criteria is the municipal finance experience, the project approach, California specific expertise which is really valuable for us because California does have very strict regulations on these type of measures that we're exploring.
And then who were the team of individuals that would be conducting this analysis and guiding the city through the process? And just the overall value. Next slide please. Why Wildand Financial Services? They have over 60 years of experience on municipal consulting and servicing the public sector. They have helped over 800 agencies, public agencies served statewide across California and then 20 plus years of serving the city of Fillmore specifically with special district fees and financial consulting.
California-specific expertise, they have worked on community facility districts or CFDs, enhanced infrastructure financing districts or what we commonly refer to them as EIFDs. Property and business improvement districts also, landscape and lighting districts. They are experts on special tax and voter approved Revenue measures and development impact fees, cost allocation plans, special district administration. And they're also partnering with NHA advisors which are municipal advisor in public finance and FM3 research for voter polling and community outreach. So tonight we are recommending the council to move forward with Well Done Financial Services because they're the strongest overall qualification and the best value for this type of study that the city is, if you approve it tonight, embarking in.
Next slide please. So the scope of work will require, it's a lengthy process. So if you approve the agreement tonight then we would be having a kickoff meeting but it's going to be in two phases so 26-27 would be phase 1 and then phase 2 would be fiscal year 27-28 The feasibility analysis would compose of phase one, which would be the parks and recreation funding feasibility.
The analyzing of district formation, revenue measure options, bonding capacity review and preliminary finding reports. Downtown Economic Profile and Revenue Feasibility. That would be the economic baseline, funding needs analysis and revenue feasibility findings for downtown rehabilitation or revitalization. Citywide sales tax feasibility analysis. Analysis of the general and special tax options and feasibility findings Internal review work sessions and City Council presentations. So staff will review, they would be providing a council presentation and the feedback would be incorporated. And then phase two we're looking at fiscal year 27-28 which would be the implementation of the plan once you've Made a decision with the data provided, we would be moving into what would look like a community engagement and voter polling.
So FM3 would conduct the community-wide polling and stakeholder outreach to assess public support for potential funding measures And then for the second part of this would be Parts and Recreation District Implementation Plan, so a detailed implementation alternatives draft for district documentations if that's like feasible. Engineer's report looking at like the downtown revitalization funding implementation plan. So the implementation alternatives and documenting for downtown funding mechanisms. And then four would be the final report in the City Council presentation Which we would be looking at having a final deliverable sometime around March of 2028, which would still align for the November 2028 voter and allow us with enough timing for us to put any sort of ballot measure if that's the decision at that given time.
So it's a long-term process Just reviewing the project schedule like I mentioned, it's going to be through multiple fiscal years. So this quarter 3-2026 end of summer beginning of fall would look at the project kickoff and then data collection baseline conditions analysis initial business stakeholders outreach Agreement execution and the work plan refinement. Then quarter 4, 26, quarter 1, 2027 would look at the analysis phase which is the assumptions review, quantitative analysis, preliminary finding developments and scenario testing for all feasibility work streams Quarter 2, quarter 3 2027 would be the draft of the feasibility report. So internal staff work sessions city council presentation and feedback and then draft the feasibility reports circulated for review moving on to the quarter 4 27 quarter 1 2028 We would be moving into the implementation planning.
So that would be the ballot measure polling, draft implementation of alternatives, final implementation plan development and then March 2028 we'd look at like the ballot measure deadline So the City Council ballot measure adoption deadline, if the council desires to move into that direction and that would allow us with sufficient time for us to meet the deadline which is typically at the end of June with elections. So we're giving ourselves a bit of an earlier deadline just to make sure we align with The elections calendar as well. And then November 2028, you know would be the potential election if you all decide at that time that you want to move forward with a ballot measure it would go into that election cycle.
So the total project duration would be 24 to 28 months roughly, if you agree for us to move forward with this study. And the study findings do not obligate the city by any means for you to pursue any sort of specific measure. It's just providing you with the tools and the data that you will need to make an educated decision on exploring additional funding mechanisms The city desperately needs to make sure that we can fund future budget cycles and continue to provide the service that we are currently providing for our constituents.
So the cost proposal for phase one feasibility task, it's all broken down there but I separated them into the two categories which would be the parks and recreation at $74,880. 66% of the phase one, which would be the district formation. If we vote that if you decide that that makes sense or just other revenue measures and bonding capacity. And then for the downtown revalidization, we're looking at $38,540. So there's about 482 hours for phase one.
And this would be spread out across fiscal year 26, 27. Next slide please. Thank you. Cost proposal for both phase 1 and 2 would be $227,155. I do want to mention that the initial Proposal had a higher price, but we were able to negotiate the price with Build and Financial. And then we took some of the items out. And because we're also a long-term client of them they have agreed to reduce that from $252,025 by looking at like the scope and really having that conversation with the team of exactly what was the goal of the study. And so they were able to reduce and take some of the things that were not necessarily important at this time, but also allowed us to move forward with the study itself.
So with that being said, they're also allowing us to spread the fiscal impact into two fiscal years which I think it will be good for us. That way we don't have to absorb the entire amount this fiscal year. General fund reserve appropriation because this was not included in the budget that you just approved back in May. And then they would allow us to then pay the other half of the study if that's what you agree upon tonight, July 1st of the following fiscal year. Next slide please.
I think I already covered this so next slide. So we are recommending tonight for you to approve the fiscal year 26-27 appropriation as a one time general fund reserve in the amount of $113,577.50. Then approve professional services agreement and an approved format by the city attorney. We already have a draft. We sent it to them. There's some comments that were working on it And so once the city attorney approves that, then you would be authorizing me to execute the agreement.
And then authorize me also to be able to execute any non-substantive amendments necessary to carry out the agreement and the project itself. So upon council approval, if that's what you decide tonight we will execute the agreement once we finalize the last portion of the language and then schedule a project kickoff meeting with the team to refine the work plan and the deliverables sequencing.
I do have Molly McKay which will be, if you approve the contract hour managing principal she is via Zoom available to answer any questions and with her tonight also is Mark Northcross, who's the managing director of NHA Advisors. They are here available if you have specific details about the project but I've been working with Molly and her team for about a month just trying to Meet halfway with the proposal. They have been very responsive and I feel comfortable that with you know, her guidance and the team that she has recruited will be able to successfully provide you with the data that you requested us to move forward back in December So that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions And like I mentioned Molly and Mark are available virtual
2:31 – 2:4316 turns
Okay. Thank your questions Council Member Village.
Okay, thank you. I think a couple questions and comments. Sorry about that. Erika, thank you very much for your presentations really comprehensive. Thank you for laying it all out and explaining this endeavor that's before us should we vote to take this on? And I know earlier in them we had a discussion about return on investment spending money And my, my comment that I wanted to skip for our council members is the return on investment on this is potentially huge and long lasting for years and years and decades and Julie generations to come. So just understand that impact will have It's really big and it's a big task that the city staff has put before us to take on. But again, if we decide to move forward it would really pay dividends for our community.
I think my question or concern or what I wanted to make a comment on is I love the plan and the outline sounds just right that you're really planning this far out But also being that we see this coming to fruition potentially if we go with it and we decide to, you know, something on the ballot in 2028. Dedicate as much time and resources of this package to ensuring if we decide to go forward, we want it to make it the best we can. We want it too. And again I'm just putting this out there but we want it to pass. We're investing this much time and effort in the planning and making sure it's the right thing for the city and we're going to do research and focus groups and everything around all this data analysis so that's all stuff that we can control And I think if we pass this, we will do a great job on it.
But I just want to make a comment that we have to be sure that there's enough dedicated time, resources, staffing that shall we make that decision in the future? We need to have enough funds there to really ensure that we are communicating this to voters. So that's what I'm trying to say that 2028 is a key year and so To really emphasize that. You have to be cognizant of that.
Thank you. Council Member Garnica?
Just echoing what Christina said, you did a very good job outlining the process for how we hopefully are going A very well thought out and good decision should we decide to go down that path. The resources that we're talking about possibly putting in place would affect generations like my grandchildren, the children of all the residents here because what's obvious to me and I think most people is We need more resources for our kids in terms of parks and rec. And definitely in terms of the downtown area, we all recognize that it's a valuable asset to the city of Fillmore and that we need to invest in that asset if you want to continue with the character of Fillmore going forward. So no great job on putting together the process for how we hopefully come to a good decision.
No this is great.
Council Member Rodriguez. Sounds
like there's a lot of work and no pressure. Just my comment that great work with your team, as I mentioned. There was a lot of work going into this and I said no pressure because the council members here are... It's gonna affect a lot of people which is really thought out and very strategic and we have a great team. We have a great team and I have faith that we're gonna execute this and we're gonna come and we're going to succeed so
I want to echo what my fellow council members said as well, is that it's going to affect generations to come and possibly reshape I'm going to That we're going to need as a council to make a smart decision. And it's gonna come from the hard work that staff is gonna do and will then, will do so I'm excited about this and also ready to roll up our sleeves and make some hard decisions.
So thank you so much for your hard work. With that being said, I guess we're ready to make a motion Sounds like.
Yeah, I am. So I'll make this motion that the City Council approve the allocation for fiscal year 26-27 in the amount of $113,577.50. Also approve the professional services agreement with Wildan Financial Services in the amount of $227,155 for preparation of the Municipal Funding Feasibility Study for Parks Recreation and Downtown Economic Vitality Also authorize the city manager to execute the professional services agreement in a form approved by the city attorney and authorized the city manager to execute any non-substantive amendments necessary to carry out the intent of this agreement.
Can I get a motion? Second. Can we have a second? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes unanimously, thank you guys so much.
Moving on to item number 10 City Manager Verbal Report
Thank you, Mayor. So tonight I am going to request Chief Lalo to provide us with an update on the fireworks activity that happened on July 4th, citations and he's gonna provide a breakdown of how busy that weekend went.
Very busy. Thank you, Erica. Good evening Mayor, Council Members, community members, staff. I'll be brief. I know you guys got this information from Erica so I'll try to be as brief as I can. So every year obviously we have a lot of calls for service during the 4th of July week and typically July 3rd and July 4th. So fireworks activity here in Fillmore just to put some stuff in perspective. So the total number of fireworks calls for the county and this is Sheriff's Office jurisdiction not Other other cities was a 176 call for service reference fireworks.
And then the total number of broadcasts of fireworks for the county was 357 every year our dispatch center. They alter their calls for service for fireworks during the 3rd and 4th of July because they get so many calls for service. And so rather than every single call that they get, which is 533 generating a call for service, if the information comes through and it's very vague then that would be a broadcast for service. So they put it out over the radio And if deputies are in the area, they can check that instead of generating a call for service. If there's specific information like there is a subject at this address lighting illegal fireworks and that would generate an actual call for service where it goes in the system and the deputy or deputies go and respond to that.
So they do that because of the overwhelming number of calls. If they generated a call for service for all of them The calls would stack up and then they'd be in the pending queue for hours. So again, that's the total of 533 calls. The number of fireworks calls in the city of Fillmore was 32 and then the broadcast number of calls was 33 so that's 65 out of the 533 not a huge amount compared to the entire county.
Fillmore City calls for service. So just to give you, put things in perspective a little bit so be July 3rd and July 4th total number of calls for service for the city was 196. And that also includes the 65 that I just mentioned but it also includes all the other calls domestic disturbances party disturbances calls fights what any kind of call for service and self initiated activities so traffic stop pedestrian contacts things like that.
And then we also have every year, we do the fireworks hotline that will set up shortly after the fire safety meeting. So between June 25th and July 11th, we actually got a call on July 11th after the information was sent to Eric. We had a total of 15 calls to that service. Seven of those calls were from one resident. And again, most of those calls vague in nature. Some of them did provide a nearby address but all those emails when we get them and I know they go to Erica as well on the fire chief. We forward those to the staff working that night and then they conduct whatever follow up they can Let me see here. We did, between July 3rd and July 4th we issued a total of 14 citations.
Three of those were for health and safety code violations for fireworks and 11 of those were administrative citations through the city. Five of those citations, five of the eleven were actually issued to not a specific person but a resident So the deputies observed the firework coming from a specific residence. The residents there didn't want to admit who it was, and so the citation is issued to address the property.
We did use a drone for a few hours on July 4th. The drone team did issue three of those administrative citations. It came in handy, but it was a daunting task to say the least to try to get all these citations. What else do we have here? We had no reported accidents or injuries which is always a good thing. We did respond to a couple with fire, trash can fires things like that nothing significant and obviously we did have the large fire over at the high school parking lot With all the structure fire or the material there. So that investigation is ongoing and it's you know, our detectives are doing some follow-up on that Overall it was a It was a busy weekend with calls for service and you know all the other calls that we get but everything turned out as best as we can expect window injuries no significant incidents.
So we're happy for that I think that's it, unless you guys have any other questions.
I don't but thank you for your hard work.
Thank you Chief for all of it.
You
guys made it easy for me though, thank you!
2:43 – 2:5714 turns
Joe Belomo, Public Works Director is going to provide a brief update on Well 10
We have the notice of completions coming to you all next City Council meeting. At the moment we're working on reinstalling the large gazebo that was taken out. They poured the pad for that this past week, and it's curing right this week. And so this Thursday they're going to be getting in there with some of the vertical members and start reconstructing the gazebo.
In addition to that, Well 5 was demolished or destructed and now we're clearing the way for my crew to get in there and start tearing down the structure and taking down the fence and stuff like that. Getting the site prepared to return back to park space. After the Pergola or the Gazebo has been reinstalled, I'm debating if I get in there with the landscape crew in advance of the actual structure going in place.
I should know that by you know when I come back for the notice of completions on the drilling contractor and for the gazebo Backing up on the gazebo, part of that contract was to install 188 parking space in close proximity to the reinstalled gazebo. So that has also been constructed. That was poured at the same time that the pad for the gazebo was poured. So that pretty much concludes Bill 10.
Thank you so much. You're
welcome.
I also wanted to mention to the council that you haven't heard me provide you with a pothole maintenance report. It's not that we've forgotten, it's just that balancing act staff has been really busy with like 4th of July events, summer concerts and just making sure that we're balancing all of the demands that we receive with the short but mighty crew that we have. And so it is still on our purview, you know staff is continuing to work and as you heard the city engineer today provided you with a very detailed presentation of like street resurfacing and so we will continue looking at potholes but at this present time we're just focusing on other duties that are needed as well And then I'm going to pass it on to Manny, who's going to provide you with a brief on the ERF and Campman Resolution Grant.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor and members of the Council. I'm gonna leave my computer charging there so I'll have the rest of my notes ready. But yeah, so I'll be giving you an ERF update and the first thing I'm gonna take you to is to take a look at our website and we've updated our ERF web page to include information on how we're spending our grant funds. So let me see if I can get us there.
And so when you visit the website, and you go under departments and head down to our city manager Section and click on homelessness. And you'll have five option on the left, and if you click on encampment resolution grant it will take you to our encampment resolution web page. And here you'll get information on the grant. We presented this to you previously, and so the latest and greatest which I gotta thank our city manager Erica Herrera for helping upload this information up to the website gives us how much we've spent in the major category areas within our grant.
So first and foremost are our grant case management contract year-to-date we've spent $94,000 So that would be from January of 2026 to current. And next we have our contribution to the Spirit of Santa Paula shelter, and so our contribution for the Spirit of Santa Paula is $150,000 a year. Can vary depending on the number of clients that they have at the shelter for that given year, but are agreed upon contributions $150,000. To date we've made our invoice payments at $112,500.
Next, we've had $2,678 in city attorney's fees. That surmises the extent of our expenses at this time. We're going to be working on a loan agreement with People Self-Help Housing to provide a grant amount for their project, the Fillmore Terrace Project in the amount of $374,000. Now that they've secured their tax credits They expect to go to construction, hopefully towards the end of this year. So we'll be working with them on getting those funds over to them to help pay for their development costs.
And so we also have funds for an encampment cleanup. We have funds if we have a significant amount of overtime that's needed from the homeless liaison unit team, we have funds budgeted for that. And then finally we have a significant, what appears to be a significant amount of funds for rapid rehousing. And these are the funds that are to be utilized if we secure a motel room, if we secure an apartment or room for one of our clients that will not only be able to pay for their cost to move into the unit but also to pay for their rent and we would be Continuing those funds if the client were to maintain a good working relationship with our case managers, we could fund their rent for up to two years.
The goal is to get them into a permanent supportive housing unit such as the Fillmore Terrace Project. There are 13 units that are set aside for homeless folks So the goal is to have them in a temporary housing solution until we can get them into a safe, permanent housing solution that they can afford ongoing and in perpetuity. I'm so happy to answer any questions you have on that. Otherwise, I have some additional updates.
Could you elaborate a little bit on why we're postponing the cleanup?
Oh right, yep. So I wanted to start off, I'll get into our postponing of our cleanup work. But I wanted to give you an update on how the outreach is going. So in the month of May, we had seven of the unhoused clients out in the encampment that had signed up for services with our case management team. We added three to that number in the month of June so we have ten of the encampment residents signed up for services, so that's really positive.
And part of the work that we do with them, I think I mentioned before is we provide them transportation to appointments. Some of the really important work that we're doing with them is helping them get their vital documents that they need for services. So that's very time consuming and it's difficult to do that in the encampment setting because they're not always in the same place at the same time. So getting them in a shelter or in a motel really helps so One of the challenges that we have with this encampment.
The Encampment Cleanup is owned by two different property owners, the two adjacent properties. And they're actually in a location in the Santa Clara River where there is documented habitat for an endangered species bird. It's called the Lease Bells Vario. And with this particular area, they've documented to breed. And currently we are in their breeding season and so it's anticipated that this should be completed by the end of July.
It varies from year to year. And so with having an endangered species, California Department of Fish and Wildlife have very strict guidelines of how you enter and interact with the area so as not to disturb their breeding habitat. So with going in and doing some of the cleanup activities, it's gonna be time is of the essence. And using some heavier equipment is sometimes necessary to do some of that work in a faster amount of time.
So we're not able to go in there right now with that heavy equipment, and it's risk for the city. It's risk for the property owner to go in there and do a heavier type of cleanup. So the plan is to wait until a bird survey's conducted. And this is going to be conducted in, I'd say, in a week or two by the end of July. A biologist will be performing a bird nesting survey and we'll have more information on where the birds are in their nesting season and hopefully get a clean up in early fall.
Manny, can you repeat the name of the indigenous species?
I can. This feels like a Jeopardy. It's the Least Bells Vireo.
I'd like to see a photo of the bird posted on the website
please. We'll work on that. Google is very helpful. So yeah it's the Least Bells Vireo. It has been a very precious bird so we've got to make sure we respect its habitat With that, going to a little bit more of our update. So good news we're working with the staff over at the Harvard Shelter on hopefully getting a couple of more of our clients or unhoused encampment residents entered into the shelter.
So fingers crossed that we get a couple of them entered in there. The other part that I wanted to update you on is, I've actually completed a grant for around five grant funds. And so this is the ERF grant, the same grant program and we would be looking to continue a lot of the same activities. So the case management, the rapid rehousing, the contribution to the Harvard shelter And, you know, requesting some more additional funds for program management to support our case management team.
So fingers crossed that we get approved for that and also another big part of that is to support another permanent supportive housing project In the entitlement phase and this is a many mansions Mountain View to project which is across the street from their existing project over on Mountain View Street in the corner of Mountain View and Santa Clara Street Yes, I think I hit all of my notes and I'm open to any any questions you might have
Okay questions. Oh Go ahead Mario
I have one question, Manny. You mentioned seven and now there's three more individuals that are receiving services which is a great number. Even if you get one more it's still great. Do we have an increase of people down there or has it been still kind of the same number in terms of like the amount of people that are living down there?
It changes. I mean, I would say it changes day to day the more time I'm talking with our HLU team or case management team. I think there's been three or four of the individuals that have actually been arrested and so for a short amount of time they're depending on the nature of their infraction if they get jail time You know, they could be away for a certain period of time. So it fluctuates but not we haven't seen an increase or decrease that's significant.
2:57 – 3:0515 turns
Follow-up question to Mario's about the 10. Again, that's great. I think that shows that we're having an impact on them. Do we know... So of those ten that are receiving services, so services is kind of a broad term, do we know how many of them actually are taking advantage of, I guess, the facilities over in Santa Paula?
So one, we have one client that has been since we started our program in January that has been entered into the Spirit
of Santa Paula. And do we I guess is there hope for more of them? That we think they're good candidates to go there?
There are some that are good candidates and some that are going to be challenging. And so we're working on a case-by-case basis with the case management team. The other challenge is that there are times where the client is ready, they'd be willing And then the next day, they could change their minds. So I can see getting the updates from the case management team how difficult it is to get movement from them.
Nevertheless, we do have a solid candidate right now that are doing some preliminary type of compliance measures to make sure that there are no issues when they move in. So hopeful that we'll get at least one entered in this week.
I think you mentioned before that the number hovers between 13 and 17, is that correct? That's correct. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you Manuel for the report and I appreciate the update to the website You know just to see the transparency and the accountability is really great with the dollar. So well done well done And if my question is sort of similar to John's in that there's Santa Paula shelter right where Any Fillmore resident, whether they're not just necessarily in the encampment but homeless in some other way. Couch surfing or really on the brink of being homeless. We have that ability to help them via the Santa Paula shelter. But those funds that are in the rapid rehousing, right? That could be a halfway house or I'm not even sure if it could be a drug treatment center.
I'm funding there. But can you explain just a little bit about how you've got folks who have signed up and said, okay, I'm willing to accept services or at least I'm willing to interact with the case managers, right? And try to figure out to get these records. And you mentioned that it's so much... It would be so much easier or more... Yeah, easier to access these records and these other things that are needed to get services if they are in a spot. So is there I don't know sort of I guess my question is do we have any idea of a timeline between They're open to this case manager to where, let's see if we can get them into one of these other alternatives because the shelter as we all know has their criteria, their parameters. There are things that probably many just don't want to particularly be in the communal area.
So I wonder if you could speak to that?
Yeah, you know really every client is different and their needs are different. And some of them are working, some of them are still within their throes of their issues that they're suffering from. So it really varies but we are looking at different Different methods, different resources such as there's a Rescue Mission Alliance. I didn't touch on this but currently the Rescue Mission Alliance which operates a shelter in the city of Oxnard and they are in discussions with the City of Santa Paula and the partnering agencies with potentially taking over operations of the Spirit of Santa Paula Shelter And so their shelter in Oxnard is also a resource that is available to us. What's difficult with that is, you know, a lot of our residents are from Fillmore, a lot of our own house are from Fillmore and it sometimes can be difficult to place them even though we think about Oxnard 20-30 minutes away, it can be difficult to be willing to go into another community where you don't know You don't have those connections with people.
But Rescue Mission Alliance has opened their doors and has been very willing to work with us if we had a client that they could potentially help. So those are some of the resources that we're looking for. Unfortunately, with the hotels there isn't a whole lot of vacancy. And so the other situation is looking for landlords Or that would be open to, like a shared housing situation where maybe they'd rent a room.
And so those are the type of relationships that we're trying to build locally here in Fillmore and then across the county as well.
So many I know in the past we've had issues with. I know it's a partnership between the county, the city of Santa Paula and ourselves and we've had issues with payment from some of the other entities. Is that continuing or is that kind of resolved? Is that kind of behind us? Can you talk to that a little bit?
What what I could say is that. That there are some issues and we're working through them. As a matter of fact, we've set up a regular meeting so that we can address the ongoing issues and do as best we can to Yeah, to encourage improvement on some of these issues. And also with the creation of a timely agreement so that it's clear to the Rescue Mission Alliance if they move forward that hey look we've got an agreement for exactly when they're gonna take over and when they're gonna start.
So our first meeting will be, our first series of regular meetings will be this Thursday. So I'm encouraged.
And for the record, Fillmore has paid their amount. I just want to make sure we're clear on that.
Thank you, Manny. Sure, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. No other questions?
One other comment on this I just wanted to make was kudos for applying for this next level of ERF grant. As you mentioned, progress is progress and progress has been made so great job. I know that's going to show up in your grant application and that we're really making a conservative effort with this first amount of funds. So fingers crossed that we can continue to work through this.
Thank you so much.
The last item I have is just remind the community about our concerts in front of City Hall. So on Friday we have Dante Elefante, Stop Hitting Yourself, Lucia Fasano which is indie rock pop disco genre so we hope to see you here on Friday and that those were all the updates we had from my office
okay thank you
3:05 – 3:065 turns
Mayor, I'd just like to point out one issue that's kind of a housekeeping task for the meetings. So I know when I served on the school board during the public comment session usually the board president would read out kind of a blurb to kind of educate the public that says something to the effect of hey this is the time and place to address the school board you know the school board cannot comment on any You know, because I think...I don't know if you sensed it tonight but I definitely got the feeling that like some people were feeling like hey why isn't the council addressing what the issues we're bringing up and they're not in the middle of it like we are and hear it every day about the Brown Act. And so that reminder I think might be good To add to our, you know, our agenda just so that you read it out and it reminds the public that hey.
Even if you bring something up, you're allowed to bring it up but we really can't address it right? And I don't know Tiffany if you have any comment on that.
Yeah, I have no concerns with adding that and having it read on the nights that there are public comment speakers. Hopefully they hear it. Sometimes they're just nervous about what they're going to say but that can help for sure.
Thank you.
Okay
well with that being said then I will adjourn this meeting until the next regularly scheduled meeting at 6 30 p.m on Tuesday August 11th