City Council — 2024-04-23

Yes mayor. Mayor Stix.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Whitman.

Here.

Council Member Ruhl.

Here

Council Member Lange.

Here

council member Francina

here

all present

commission reports and no presentations. So we will go on to public communication And just a reminder to everyone, these are items that are not on the agenda. And because they're not on the agenda we cannot discuss them. We appreciate your viewpoint and participation and we can agendize them for the future. So we'll begin with Ula Levitt and then Ariana Macias. I said that wrong didn't I? Macias, okay. And Alula Alderson.

I'm a senior at Oak Grove School and have lived in Ojai my whole life. I am also member of the Ojai Mayor's Youth Council. I am here to talk about the plastic problem in Ojai. Plastics have been shown to be in our water supply are a hazard, and if we do not act now it will only get worse. It came to my attention that in 2014, the City of Ojai passed the Ordinance No. 817 to stop single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and liquor stores.

I noticed that grocery stores are using plastic bags again. I found out that stores in Ojai are allowed to use thicker plastic bags that are at least 2 1⁄4 mils thick. I'm afraid this is a loophole that stores are using to continue providing plastic bags. They are intended to be used multiple times. Unfortunately, not many people I've noticed actually reuse a plastic bag more than once so this causes more plastic waste than before.

The extra plastic causes there to be a greater number of microplastics in our environment as they contaminate our soil water and food I would like to mention that Westridge stopped giving out plastic bags excluding meat and produce, and that seems to be working well for them. Whereas Vons continues to use thick plastic bags. This loophole is even of concern to the state.

In 2014 California as a whole also decided to transition to thicker plastic bags, and the state as well noticed a huge increase in plastic waste. In 2014, California threw away 315 million pounds of plastic bags while in 2022, California threw away 462 million pounds of plastic bags. That's a huge increase for a law that was supposed to reduce the amount of plastic in landfills.

I am urging the City Council to really take this seriously and to make others aware of this issue. Here are my three solutions that I propose. The first is for the City Council to add this to the agenda and further clarify the Ordinance 817, to include all plastic bags. The second is to investigate why stores still use thicker plastic bags and work with them to find a solution.

And lastly, anyone here that is listening in please do not use these bags bring your own paper or cloth bags. I'm very passionate about this and am asking the City Council to put an end to this plastic bag problem once and for all. This is so important for my future and everyone else's. The environment is counting on all of us thank you

Thank you, Ula. Next we have Ariana and then Alula and then Leanna McNeely.

Hello council my name is Ariana I'm a junior at Oak Grove and i'm a member of the Mayor's Youth Council. I am urging you to stop the usage of rodenticides in Ojai. Rodenticides are being sold in local stores which give people easy access to purchase these toxic chemicals These easily attainable chemicals make their way into the raptor population which threatens the ecosystem. According to the Ojai Raptor Center, rodenticides have been a detrimental impact on raptors.

Rodenticides are poison that do not kill animals immediately rather it makes them weak and slow before they die which makes them easy prey. A family of barn owls are approximately six, which can consume up to 4,000 rodents in the span of their four-month breeding cycle. In efforts to solve a rodent population in the Nordoff bleachers, The Green Valley Project was able to install two owl boxes and help raise awareness of the positive impact they could have on their campus.

Also, in many instances our pets are also being affected by the infected rodents which can induce vomiting and diarrhea. This puts in risk their well-being and safety. We must be able to solve this problem and protect our natural ecosystem. So here are some things I propose. We must help support the health of our raptors and use our local resource or natural resources to help maintain a healthy wildlife cycle because raptors are nature's rodenticides.

This will also help maintain a balance within the rodent population. Another solution for public areas is that the council must pass a mandate to cover the trash cans through the city with lids so that rodents don't become more populated in areas where people leave their trash. I encourage the community to also build owl boxes and pick up after themselves to stop the rodent population, and continue to encourage the well-being of our wildlife and its preservation.

Lastly, I urge the Council to ban all sales of rodenticides in the Ojai Valley because this will encourage people to look for alternatives to rodenticides. The youth cares about the environment and I care about its well-being, so I urge the council to preserve our sacred ecosystem and support the ban of rodenticides. Thank you.

Thank you, Ariana. Next we have Alula and then Leanna and then Dan McLaughlin.

Hello, this feather belonged to an owl that died here in Ojai from consuming rodenticide. Hello my name is Alula Alderson I'm a senior at Ojai Valley School and a member of the Ojai Mayor's Youth Council today like Ariana I would like to talk to you about the use of rodenticide in the Ojai Valley which is a subject I feel passionately about as an animal lover and environmentalist Often, rodents will need to consume rodenticide multiple times before the poison takes effect as they've developed some immunity.

Not only can rodenticide be ineffective but it's also extremely inhumane. When the poison does work as intended, rodents suffer from uncontrollable internal bleeding and die an agonizing death lasting anywhere between a couple of hours to several days. During this time frame, the rodents grow lethargic becoming easy targets for raptors and other predators and once dead may be consumed by scavenger birds in this way rodenticide works its way up the food chain killing owls like this one hawks eagles snakes coyotes and mountain lions A study performed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife found 95% of mountain lion carcasses in the state contain traces of this poison in their systems.

One of the greatest concerns of my age group is climate change. Rodenticide is a small but significant factor in this larger issue because it's responsible for great biodiversity loss. Overall, rodenticide usage is often ineffective, cruel and harmful for the environment. Recognizing this, the Ojai City Council passed a resolution 10 years ago to discourage the sale purchase and use of anticoagulant rodenticides but clearly not much has changed. Stores in Ojai including Wachter's Hay & Grain continue to sell rodenticide and residents continue to purchase and use it I urge the City Council to put this topic on the agenda for a future meeting and consider the following actions.

One, educate the community about the dangers of rodenticide. Two, encourage residents to remove rodent attractants and use traps and other devices rather than turn to rodenticide. Three, install Raptor boxes throughout the city to naturally exterminate rodents. And four, pass a new ordinance that goes one step further than discouraging rodenticide and bans it altogether. Thank you for your time.

Thank You Alula Next we have Leanna and then Dan and then Rachel Hunt

Good evening. My name is Leanna McNeely and I'm a member of Better Solutions for Ojai, which is a group of 60 plus neighbors who are affected by the encampment on the City Hall campus. We'd like to express our gratitude for the engagement with our group by Mayor Sticks, Councilwoman Sousa Franchina Chief of Police Trina Newman and Ben Harvey. The fact that you all took time from your busy schedules to meet with us shows your commitment to continued engagement.

With our new city manager, we've seen positive action in confronting Ojai's homeless issues in ways that are sensible and compassionate while the efforts made managing the encampment are appreciated those of us living in proximity to it continue to experience disruptions To the quiet enjoyment of our homes. We understand that the City Administration recognizes the current site of the encampment is not only not ideal, but highly detrimental to the surrounding neighborhoods as well as to the city employees who work next to it.

We hope that all council members also recognize this fact and we urge the Council to publicly acknowledge the negative impacts to those neighborhoods in proximity to the encampment. The 2024 point-in-time survey has been published. Ojai has seen an increase of 16 people identified as unhoused from 2023 to 2024, an increase of 42%. And we know there are many more who were not captured in that survey. Any solution for the unhoused in our valley needs to consider the increasing needs for housing and services.

We're thrilled that the encampment resolution grant has been awarded in the full amount requested. We see this money as a means to locate and procure an appropriate alternate site to the encampment, one which will better serve the campers and one which will not impact residential neighborhoods. While the search for an alternate site continues we're hopeful the city administration and council members Move forward with a detailed plan for the long-term sustainability of the housing project, as this is a need which will only increase in time. Thank you.

Thank you, Leanna. Next we have Dan McLaughlin then Rachel Hunt and then Delaney Labar.

Good evening, my name is Dan McLaughlin. I have a concern that I've been trying to work out for probably a year dealing with the 33 proposal that you're looking at for going out for contract There's a section of the road that I came in roughly nine months ago and talked to Public Works It deals with

point-of-order man. That's

what a group is

just I'm sorry Dan. That's on the agenda tonight

It's I'm not talking about things around it's just a part of the roadway Not the contract

Okay

Okay, hopefully I'll be done anyway So I came in today and talked to Public Works staff And they said you the project is a done deal which I can't understand. You have to go to the city manager I said well he's probably got a lot on his plate He's not gonna want to be too concerned with this But it's the facilities the Clinicus and Swanner group and medical facilities and all the retail Crocker Bank or Chase Bank excuse me It's a double yellow line from Cabrillo

I think this is actually on the ATP. Can you wait? It's on its agenda.

I can't have another meeting. Okay, so

I'm sorry

Anyways something somebody should look at

because you can send us a letter also Okay. Thank you next we have Rachel Hunt Delaney LaBar and then Starchild Okay Thanks Delaney

Good evening. As someone who lives down the block from the Kent Hall encampment, I want to give a shout out of congratulations to the city and all the people who worked on that grant. Heck yeah. But also the efforts they've made to get people off the ground in these really cold, wet winter days. Additionally and perhaps most important is digging into a plan for a strategy for the future Ben Harvey, as Leanna mentioned, Ben Harvey and Mayor Sticks and Councilwoman Sousa and Trina Sheriff all met with us. And that really makes such a difference when you get that kind of city response so I really want to thank you for your time in meeting with us and discussing where we were on all of this.

I really think the grant will move us forward. That was no small feat, winning that. I've been in the grant world and I did some research into Dignity Moves who's the organization that's looking to do a more long-lasting project than the temporary tents out here And I think their template, yes they build row houses of modest single rooms. They have showers and bathrooms and laundry facilities and the things like that that you would want. They have security and fencing all of which are really helpful so there isn't a lot of ingress and egress all the hours of the day or night.

But equally as important are the social services and mental health services that they bring to the community so that you can really start to build something and help people get up and out into more permanent housing. So I just want to say, um, I know other sites will be considered. I'm eager to hear what comes next. I am patient enough to wait and see what you can do here.

And kudos to everyone and thank you keep up the good work.

Thank You Delaney. Next we have Rachel Hunt and then Starchild and then David Chapman

Hi, I'm Rachel Hunt and I am speaking to you as a lifelong community member here, third generation. And also a member of the Cherokee Nation and granddaughter of a woman named Nanihi who is one of the daughters of the American Revolution. So first off, I want to say that I'm really thankful to Jennifer Harkey from the Ventura Continuum of Care and all the work she put towards with this grant.

And I'm thankful that even if the smallest percentage of it is used for another toilet which is needed, that's a celebration. But I'm here to make a semi-proposal to have something agendized, I think it's called. So I'm proposing for $7 million of the grant to be allocated for a beloved Ojai Beloved Elder Women and Children Tiny Home Village. This would be a project of profound compassion that would offer a healthy stable living space for families to be able to stay together and individuals to continue on with community connections already established such as work or finishing school.

In an integrated system where the younger women could help take care of the aging elders who are going to need daily care support as they age and already are. The elders can act as surrogate grandparents to the children around or for their biological grandchildren that are currently facing being unhoused in the next month, and we could all care for the native plants growing food for us and a greater community in a holistic regenerative model.

This would be a long-term solution for part of our current encampment that would also create a space for women to heal from CPTSD and generational trauma that frequently comes with growing up living in poverty, and provide some protections from vulnerable women at risk of trafficking, drug exposure, and other compromising situations living on the streets put women and children in.

Furthermore, this would be a gesture of reconciliation and retribution with respect toward that this city has made a profit off of removing indigenous people from their homelands and stopping more current indigenous people from having to be continually relocated like my Cherokee ancestors were in the Indian Removal Act on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma and into reservations.

Thank you.

Thank you Rachel. Next we have Starchild, then David Chapman and then Anita Cram.

Hello good evening I want to speak a little bit about the last City Council meeting. I like Susie Francino was very affected by the meeting and I just wanted to explain a little bit my emotions around it The first thing I want to say is that I was very grateful for Ben Harvey, for his words of calm and reconciliation. I think one of the best things that this council did was to appoint Mr. Harvey as city manager and you did that all together and I commend you for it.

I remember before his words there, the mayor gave an explanation of why she didn't want to meet with the planning commission nomination committee of Councilmember Rule and Chair Quillacy. And that explanation really affected me, not only because I felt a lot of empathy for Councilmember Rule but also I felt a bit of disenfranchisement myself. And I just wanted to explain why.

When I rewatched the Mayor's words about Councilmember Rule, I thought if she would ever want to list all of the faults that I have, she would have to call a special meeting because in order to finish before midnight it would probably take that long. The mayor did list out about a minute of some of the faults that Leslie Rule has. And I just wanted to supplement them with some of the opinions and things I noticed about her.

Leslie Rule's been my council member ever since I moved to Ojai, and I first talked to her in opposition to the ceasefire resolution. We started out actually in disagreement about something And I found that she listened empathetically, responded to my emails and I felt very well heard and very well represented by her. Two things that I notice about her is her courage and also her integrity. And I think if the mayor and everybody can remember some of the best things about the people we work with, it makes it a lot easier to work with them. It makes it a lot easier to unite this city, heal some of the divides.

To represent the whole city because as a constituent of Leslie rules district if Leslie's not part of the Commission planning commission selection group Then I can't be represented and I think that Part of giving this city the government that we deserve is making sure that we're all represented And I urge the mayor and council to work with unity and to keep that in mind going forward Thank you.

Thank you, Starchild. Next we have David Chapman and then Anita Cramm.

Hello Council. David Chapman. I live on South Blanche just down the road and am part of Better Solutions for Ojai Group. Thank you Mayor and Council and administrative staff for all your ongoing efforts for the homeless encampment here at City Hall. I and Better Solutions for Ojai were very pleased to hear that the encampment resolution funding program grant was successful, and the city was awarded the full amount applied for. Well done, including the four cents!

Thanks also due to Ventura County's Jennifer Harkley, who wrote and put together the grant. This grant sets the stage for the completion of a temporary unhoused encampment project outside and provides future funding for the permanent supportive housing units along with full support services as specified in the grant I and my group support the search for a more suitable site that better meets the needs of the unhoused, and is located away from residential neighbourhoods.

We look forward to the restoration of the green areas once all campers have been moved into the city provided tents. On another note, the Supreme Court's oral arguments on the Grant Pass versus Johnson yesterday reflected on the complexity of the homelessness in our country. While many towns and cities have a much larger challenge than Ojai does we here have the opportunity to provide an acceptable managed solution that provides permanent shelter safety and support services for our unhoused community in a location that does not impact neighborhoods. Thank you.

Thank you, David. Next we have Anita Cram

Good evening, everyone. Tonight I am here on behalf of the earth. As you know yesterday was Earth Day and I would like to remind all of us here in Ojai where we live on the edge of wilderness it surrounds us as a town we are wildlife corridor mountain lions have roamed this landscape for over six million years The pigeons, the scrub jays, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, flycatchers, vultures and our lizard friends date back to the days of the dinosaurs.

Living relics surviving for millions of years. It's not about the notion of us sharing the landscape with them it is the fact that they are sharing it with us We are in a wildlife interface every day. An ancient web of life that is really hard to fathom when you pause for a moment to think deeply about our presence in this delicate work of art. The earth is abundant, it's verdant, its teeming with life. Don't let anybody tell you that anything other than that is abundance. It's not about money, it' s not about houses, it''s not about cars, it ''s not about junk.

Too often, we humans want more than our share of what we actually need to thrive. We can be conscious stewards of the earth and I believe we're the only species who is capable of being a conscious steward of the earth. Complex ecosystems that millions of years it took to get to today. We may be the sole species that is capable of this responsibility, that needs to be taken with utmost seriousness. We are close to messing this up for all of the life that lives with us. So ask yourself when is enough enough? Why do you always need more?

How about just reveling in the beauty of nature and everything that is around us, and taking care of our community members? Why is it so important to monetize housing, food? These are things that people should just be able to have. It's not a lot to ask. Money doesn't buy happiness, we've heard that a lot but it's quite true. It only feeds a need for more so please I believe in Ojai. I believe in our community. I believe we're capable of this let's honor the wildlife that we live with and the earth thank you.

Thank You Anita any comments online?

We have no comments online Mayor

All right, thank you. Well we will move on to the consent calendar. I would like to pull item i and put it at the end of the agenda. I know that we have a very packed agenda and we need to keep moving and a lot of the items are time sensitive. Anybody else? No? Okay is there a motion to approve consent? I'll

make a motion to approve that we pull item i and approve the rest. Second?

I'll second it. Okay, wonderful. All right we will move on to discussion item number two Five-year proposed capital improvement program and we have a staff report Yes Thank you

Next slide please Let's see There we go. So so I'm going to start here and tonight, I am going to take you on a journey of knowledge and everything that about capital improvement programs. And they're going to define it for you. I'm going to tell you how we arrive at projects. And this is this is a Q&A too. I would welcome any questions along the way. I don't expect you to ask the questions at the end or hold your questions. So feel free to jump in if you have any questions So you have in your packet tonight, you have a colorful table and that is just a summary. We also have which I didn't include because I didn't want to overwhelm you with information right now although it's available actually I have some copies back here but The summary sheet that you have includes all of the projects in our, the city's five-year plan.

So it's year one starting July 1st and going the next four years after that so the costs are there at the projects are there and the timing Year one of this plan, there's been a lot of discussion in the industry about whether or not a CIP is a planning document or budget document. Well year one of the CIP is the basis for the budget so without any revisions to it tonight but I would welcome any suggestions, revisions questions etc that will become year one of the budget for the capital improvement program So what is a CIP project, people ask all the time. It's quite simply it builds, next slide please.

It builds, improves or preserves a city asset, a fixed asset. So in the past, you've seen in the CIP there have been capital purchases but not necessarily a capital project. Those are now being removed and putting into a different area in the budget. So I just want you to know that you might see something or not see some things that you're used to seeing, for example of vehicle purchase. And we'll talk about those later.

The other criteria is generally the cost, the value it's usually In excess of $50,000. You will see a couple of projects in here that are under because they meet the first definition there. They're building improving or preserving a city fixed asset. So the way staff and this is also a draft document just so you know but so the way that The staff puts together this document, this program. We first look at health and safety. Those are the first things that that we try to take care of in this in this plan.

We also look at city council goals and objectives and direction those come into play and asset preservation and extension of life useful life for example roadways etc.. We look at regulatory requirements And new or expanded services. And we see that going on right now, you know, we're talking tonight about this unhoused project. That's a new expanded services that we're creating for the city.

So one next slide please. So an overview of this program that you are seeing tonight and if I start seeing glazed eyes all kind of talk even faster and again feel free to jump in if I'm moving too quickly But in this document, we are looking at the first year is an eight or the first year that has twenty five projects and to the tune of about eight million dollars. That's before the unhoused project. So now you can add another 13 million to that figure. This was put this slideshow together before we got the grant. So here we are.

And same thing with so the total five years is about 63 projects and about 30 million, about 40 43 now So we have 16 new projects and we go back to the prior slide and that is staff has looked at some of the facilities that need upgrades. Next slide. Stay there. So we've looked at some some projects out there in the city, in the community, and we have added 16 new projects that you've never seen before. So they weren't in last year's CIP or prior years. We have 16 projects that are in closeout and how we define a closeout in this program It's either a project we've completed this year or a project that we are due to complete before the end of the fiscal year, the current year. So before June 30th. So there's still some underway.

Susan, the bus shelter is one of them. It will be in a closeout phase because we expect it to be done so and there's seven projects that we just continue to work on questions. No question. Next slide please. So the CIP implementation, so we are here and we are now. We are at the City Council review of the five-year CIP. This document will be adopted. It is a document and it's also a budget document. It will be adopted with the budget in June.

We are continuing to work on these projects that are underway. We're in the process of designing our next paving project. An unhoused project here very quickly, and we are working on thinking about beginning to think about projects that are in year one. So that's starting July 1st. So we are beginning to think about them and how we move forward with them, how we scope them, et cetera.

And then the next year process this process starts all over again next February. So we've been working on this since February of this year. And here we are. So next slide, please. So this slide here, there's a lot going on here. But what what I hear a lot when I'm out in the community and talking to people, I'm hearing a lot of people saying, is there anything going on with pickleball courts? And I'm like, there is a lot going on with pickleball courts. But if you look at this life cycle of a sample project, you can see the red arrow, the construction arrow, which is five arrows down. So all of that work that happens before that is something people don't see. Nobody sees that. They don't see that we've put an RFQ out for design services and start this design process.

Then, we go into a preliminary design process, and that is including any studies we may need to do, alternatives, cost estimates, etc., and we kind of You know, take a lot of time there because there's a lot of people who have a lot of opinions on what something should be. And so we're looking at all of those alternatives then we move into and I've got a little timeline along the bottom too and that's a range. I kind of got a little granular there but it's a broad range Then we move into a final design, and this is where sometimes we take a lot of time. We've got to negotiate land use agreements or right-of-way issues, things like that. We're getting permits. We're putting together a bid packet. We are looking at environmental issues, nesting birds, archaeological concerns so you can see How this all takes a lot of time and it really does.

It's unusual for a capital project from, and you see my little light bulb up there? It all starts right there with an idea. Somebody's got an idea. So from idea to final completion, it's rarely under a year. It very rarely under a year. So we're moving very quickly on Pickleball because Because we are, because we have to. We have to and so where we had this in the final design there we were working with the County of Ventura on right-of-way in this case it was a land use agreement and that was two parties that were working very well together and in conjunction we all had the same goal A lot of times it's not like that, and we've seen that in phase two of the ATP project. We are challenged with right-of-way issues there right now. And so you can sometimes get stuck in any one of these places and they just take time.

It's just that simple. And it's reasonable to expect any capital project to be out to bid for four to eight weeks. You know, that's not unusual. We want to get as many bidders in as we can. People come from far away sometimes to work on projects here in Ojai and we like to give them time. There's a lot of questions sometimes based on the plans. And then we launch into something people can actually see.

six to 12 months before we see groundbreaking and before people actually see something happening. So that can be frustrating for you, I'm sure because people are wondering what's going on? Well, this is the very reason that we start our paving project. We are underway. We were in design on next year's paving before last year's paving wrapped up because it takes a year. It just takes that long.

So you get through the construction and then you have this closeout period, which is fairly quickly. The yellow diagonals up on top indicate about how many times you see it and make a decision on it. That's about the minimum eight times for a capital project in all of these different phases. And then there's oftentimes study sessions because we're talking about alternatives. We're talking about other things But so there you see it, and that's what takes so long.

All of that. So any questions on this? I know there's a lot going on on this slide but I thought it was important to spend a few moments and discuss really what it looks like.

So things like more benches around the city are

part of this. Yes, and that's an excellent question. We hope that we have a design for a bus shelter that we can work with and apply in other locations. The question is and something that has come up is maybe we select it. And that's that's a project that I have in here that you will see at a location TBD And one of the ideas that we have sort of thrown around staff is maybe we cover the shelter that's at the old bowling alley and improve that shelter.

That's on private property, so we would be negotiating with the owner of the bowling alley, the old bowling alley to see if we can get an easement like we did at Bank of America or other options. But most of the bus shelters would be they're not in our public right-of-way So we would have to be working with some property owner. So on that project, the design on that project could be squished because we already have a design that we like but we may have some concerns on that final design when we start negotiating property.

And that may take time. Bank of America took a year, and Bank of America was amenable to giving that to us in an easement. It still takes time. It's back-and-forth. You know it's all kinds of things. It is working with attorneys on our side, on their side, creating legal descriptions etc.

I wasn't just thinking of the bus shelter project, which are super important and so thank you for that. But I was thinking about the need for just for pedestrians that are walking around town and some kind of—I'm sure I can get a little army of volunteers to walk the town and see where they could be located. But I just want to make sure that what I call people parking stays part of that project, but it stays part of the future plan.

And we can certainly talk about that. I mean, we can add new projects throughout the course of the year if you know if if the council so wishes and this is This document also, it's a snapshot in time. Yes, it's right now things can move. Things can be added. Things can be delayed. Deleted projects can shift from year to year. It's a it's living breathing document again. It just snapshot in time. That's all it is. Yeah. No, this looks great. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Next slide please.

So with that prior slide in mind, I wanted to highlight a couple of projects. We are about to embark on some of the largest in scope and dollar amount projects that this city has ever seen. We really, truly are. They're multi-year and they're very costly so and not to say we're not going to do them but I just wanted to sort of highlight them for you. We've got some storm drain projects and I've mentioned this to you as well in the past. We have to...we really have to start looking at our storm drain system.

We had a, we, Casitas had a water break up on Signal not too long ago that wreaked havoc. I was out of the country that weekend coincidentally but our storm drains are about that age they're about 60 years old and they are well beyond their useful life so you will see in this document as well as in the budget I am recommending that the city embark on A multi-year project. Number one, we would start with a study, a master drainage study identifying areas that need repairing, need improving, enlarging, increasing size whatever the case may be So we, we do a study up front. It's not unlike our pavement management plan that identifies streets that need repairs and then we program money in the budget in the coming years and kind of bite off chunks of that We would do the same thing in the storm drain system so you'll see that over a five-year period So we would propose for year one, a study and then the next four years out improvements based on the results of that study.

So it becomes a multi-year paving projects were well underway. We're moving along every year and I expect that to continue in perpetuity because Once we get all the streets done, we just start over and the treatment stays the same. I mean, the treatment is different. We're not rebuilding streets potentially but we're maintaining them now. We move more into a maintenance period which is good. It's a good thing.

We've got the ATP project which is on the agenda this evening as well that Well, in all likelihood be a multi-year project. And we've got our new unhoused housing project that will be a very ambitious project. They all are. I mean, we have an ambitious CIP. Next slide, please. So I wanted these are these slides, and I don't need to go through every single one of them more than anything. I wanted to illustrate these are projects that we've done this year. We have completed this year or due for completion this year . So, of course, the paving the parking lots you have not seen those yet. We're out to bid right now. We are hoping to repave Rainbow Bridge in the plaza parking lots in these fall under those That criteria of health and safety, they've become unsafe.

And so we are trying to get those moving along at this point. We have trip and falls and they're just in poor shape. So on, we've done the gym floor this year, backup batteries, ball fields, Middle Stewart Canyon right down here is finishing up this year. Our grant that we got for that has finally finished. So we're done and we will be restoring here before long We're painting. So you see a little asterisk here on the painting of the arcade, so we are on deck staff is on deck to do that paint the arcade refresh it and make it look nice.

I think I'm going to push that out a little bit. There's so much chaos going on out there right now that I don't think we need to create anymore. Yeah, so we may just start that after summer and move it on out a little bit. And we're installing catch basins and our trolley bus shelter. Questions? Questions? Next slide, please. So here's another sheet of closeout projects. So these projects were completed this year, but I wanted to spend a moment on this. These were in the CIP last year and that's why I'm putting them up as closeouts.

These types of projects you won't see in the CIP anymore. They're operating costs. The first two The dollar amounts are insignificant. They aren't improving a fixed asset of the city. We bought gym equipment, we put a shade structure up at the wall at the skate park and the truck purchase. Those were in the CIP in the past they won't be anymore. It's the truck purchase it's a capital purchase but it's not a capital project so it goes into our vehicle replacement fund So just wanted to sort of I mean, this I'm trying to sort of explain how all of this comes about.

There were some sort of anomalies in prior year CIP's that I noticed. And so we're trying to take baby steps and kind of move it in the right direction. So

through the mayor? A quick question, so basically what you're saying and this is what you started with is that there are projects and there are purchases. And they're not the same thing although they may have been slightly merged in the past and what you'r doing is pulling them apart and differentiating them.

That's exactly right. These types of purchases will still be made. You will see them in the operating budget. Great yeah

thank

you. Next slide please So I am only highlighting on these slides new projects, projects that have not been in the CIP before because you were all here last year for the CIP. So you know, I don't expect you to remember all of them, but but these are new projects that staff has gone out into the community and we have knew new things have come about new concepts, new so we just wanted to illustrate here. So we've got Pickleball at Seoul Park, a phase two.

Phase one is this year and we are hoping it's out to bid right now I don't know if you've all seen them seeing the plans on the website but they're out there so they're out to bid we hope to get enough bids and will open on May 1st and come back to you on May 14th and award the contract for phase one which is the courts themselves Phase two is just sort of a placeholder if we wanted to construct shade structures out there, benches. The original phase one plan has some benches but anything we think we might need after the courts open so we've got a new project.

So we have Libby Bowl improvements, TBD on the scope. Our city manager has suggested after we get through a concert year and series, we maybe make some improvements that that we think are necessary. So that's a new project. And likewise with the park, the lighting at Libby Bowl and also to help facilitate the holiday lighting is what we're really kind of looking for on that one.

City Council chambers here at Kent Hall, since meetings are now being held here. We would like to have a project and you know not we haven't really scoped it entirely yet but you know maybe some improvements here We will also be working on the bathrooms here and making them ADA compliant because we need to do that since it's now public facility, public use. At Oak Tree House which is the finance building, we are going to be retrofitting bathrooms there to provide shower facilities so city staff can shower after they've exercised at lunch. They run the bike trail and they want a shower and get back to work. So that's what we're doing there We will be installing backup batteries at the Public Works Admin Building, which is where my office is.