Special City Council Mtg.: Fiscal Year 2025-26 Budget Workshop — May 28, 2025

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Let's call the meeting to order. First, let me do our land acknowledgement. We would like to acknowledge that the land we inhabit today was once known as the Tavengard, the home of the Gabinino Tongva people. We show our respect to the Gabinino Tongva people, as well as all indigenous people, past, present, and future, and honor their labor as original caretakers of this land. We commit to uplifting the Gabinino Tongva people. Invite you to acknowledge the history and join us in caring for this land.

please stand and join me in the flag salute

raise your right hand over your heart ready, begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

and to the republic for which it stands one nation, under God, indivisible for liberty and justice for all

you may be seated, thank you

Madam Clerk roll call please

Councilmember Wong

Present Councilmember Sanchez

Present Councilmember Lo Here

Mayor Pro Tem Yang

Present Mayor Ngo Present We have a quorum

All right Public Communications Do we have any speakers?

No speakers Okay

New Business

Mr. Mayor and Members of the Council

Our item for tonight is our presentation of our preliminary fiscal year 25-26 budget. It's going to be presented by Martha Garcia, our finance director, and Laura Berchon, our finance manager.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council Members, Martha Garcia, finance director. Today's presentation is for the proposed fiscal year 25-26 budget. Next page. Oh, we will be discussing the budget background the city-wide financial plan staffing changes the general fund revenues and expenditures and reserves Cal per next week Cal per's unfunded accrued liability cost increases in services and supplies Debt service department presentations and at the very last capital improvement projects likely please. The city's proposed budget for fiscal year 2526 operating debt capital and successor agency budget total is $170.7 million of which $73.9 million is in the general fund and $2.3 million are successor agency obligations. Next slide please. This is a breakdown of how this 170.7 million are budgeted for depending based on the fund type. As you see, general fund is 73.9 rounded up.

Next slide, please.

This is another form to look at, a way to look at our expenditures for the proposed fiscal year 25-26.

As you see, the largest cost is to the general fund at 43%.

The next fund that has higher costs are special revenues at 19%.

Special revenues are such as gas tax, Prop A, Prop C, those types of revenues that come into the city.

Next slide.

The proposed staffing changes include a .5 ETA increase for a total of $77,747 increase in the budget,

and that includes adding a deputy fire chief and deleting one battalion chief, reclassing one animal services officer to an animal services officer supervisor, reclassing one police clerk to a senior account clerk, reclassifying one permit technician to to a senior permit technician and adding one part-time building and safety permit technician 20 hours per week.

Next slide, please.

These are the estimated revenues for fiscal year 2526. The property tax, HDL provides us with information on our property tax, and they're estimated an average of maybe 3.3% increase for next fiscal year.

HDL provides us also with sales tax, and they're anticipating a flat, fairly flat year in fiscal year 25-26 compared to our fiscal year this year.

uh tot which is a transient occupancy chat tax uh includes projections uh that for the holiday in that was open in may of 2024 and the passing of measure lg the passing of measure lg increased our tot from 12 to 13 percent effective january 1st 2025 the blt which is the business license tax projection includes the passing of BE, changing the BLT calculations from employee count to gross revenue. As of the date this report was provided to the city, the city had received $1.5 million in BLT revenue.

All the other revenues are where we calculate the other revenues using historical trends,

current economy in the last five-year average and we increased about two to two to three point five

percent for the next year next please our expenditures um are uh increased by about 4.3

from the prior year and that's mostly related to vendor increases in vendor services our cal purse

UAL payment has increased and an increase in salary and benefits.

Our total general fund expenditures estimated for next fiscal year is $73.9 million.

Next slide, please.

This is our general fund reserves, also known as fund balance. We are anticipating starting our fiscal year 25-26 with $45.3 million in general fund reserves. this includes 14.2 and committed the committed is split by three categories one of them is catastrophic and that we would be closing with the 9.3 million uh the second one is cash flow which i would combine with catastrophic but that cash flow is um is a three million and we also have 1.9 million committed to economic development for the

Petrera Grande project.

And then we have a sign and an sign for a total of the

45.3. That is at the beginning of the fiscal year. Then with your revenues coming in and your expenditures going out, we anticipate a surplus of $274,704 to end our fiscal year 25-26. Next slide. I wanted a quick glimpse to show a quick glimpse of some of our expenditures that have gone up.

We have services, supplies, and everybody is experiencing an increase in cost.

So I wanted just a quick snapshot of a few of our increased expenditures that we have in the city. For example, general liability insurance has gone up 27.45%. Our workers' comp claims have gone up 111% in the past two years. Townsend Public Affairs is a company that...

gone up 147 percent from their costs to support our city with animal control. Trans-Ticket provides support to public works and to community development. They provide a very vital assistance to our city and helps us also in our economy. And they've gone up 121 percent. We also have some new mandated costs that come from the state for affordable housing monitoring that we currently anticipate a cost of $52,558 for this mandated service that we have to provide in the city.

Next one, please.

Next, I want to talk about our unfunded accrued liability.

In February of 2021, the city issued pension obligation bonds in the amount of $106,335,000, paying off in its entirety the city's unfunded accrued liability. This payment brought the city's UAL to a zero balance in February of 2021. Since then, the UAL has risen to a new UAL balance of $43 million as of June 2023, a difference of $11 million from the prior year.

The top table indicates the required normal payment the city must make towards employee retirement plans and the required amount to be paid by the city for the new UAL. The percentage will drop in future years as more PEPRA employees are hired and less classic employees are on payroll. The bottom table shows how the UAL is calculated by CalPERS. Entry age accrued liability is the earliest age at which a plan member begins to accrue benefits under a defined benefit plan to the time they stopped collecting. In most cases, this is the age of a member at their date of hire. The market value of assets is the price of an asset in the marketplace.

Based on the prices buyers are willing to buy and what sellers are willing to accept,

CalPERS uses 2023 data for the 2526 market value, costing an increase of the $11 million to the UAL. CalPERS earned a preliminary net return of 9.3% on investments for the 12-month period ending in June 30, 2024, exceeding an established 6.8 discounted rate. We are cautiously optimistic that we may be seeing a reduction in UAL for fiscal year 2627. The city's UAL payment for this coming fiscal year, 2526, is $1.9 million.

Next is our debt service. Our debt service has remained pretty stable.

We have our water, a couple of items that have changed,

our water revenue bonds that we owe to San Gabriel Valley Maintenance Water District. We received this loan back a few years ago, but we do not have to start making payments until the project is complete.

So until then, we will continue to budget for it,

but we will start paying when the project is complete. The two new items for our debt service is the fire truck and the dump truck

and city-wide HVACs.

These were approved by council at the last council meeting, and these will be payments made to Bank of America for the next 10 years. And this concludes the summary of the citywide budget if you have any questions I

Have any questions and counsel a few quick ones just up front on on the

For the personal change for the deputy chief from the battalion chief That's so we're taking a battalion. We currently have four but allergies, right? So one of those would become deputy chief and that would be so it'd be fire chief deputy chief and then the battalion chiefs

Correct. We have one vacancy. So we will be deleting that one battalion chief vacancy. We will be deleting that vacancy and adding the deputy fire chief. And then, as you said, we'll have fire chief deputy and then the battalion chiefs.

So it would be, and I very much appreciate this. I'm guessing this is the intent, right? Also to make sure there's a clear second in command for the fire department.

Yes, correct. Correct.

On the

And Martha I'm I don't so from 24 to 25 to 25 26 right the top line numbers Is it fair to characterize this is how I read it? But you correct me if I'm wrong if I'm characterizing this wrong Generally, we're not adding any new projects or it's largely business as usual from 20 from the current budget year to the next budget year other the only thing that's or the main driver for the increases from this budget year and next budget year is cost inflation assumed for salaries and benefits, and then, as you noted, some of the services that we contract for some of those inflation... That is correct. ...we're assuming. So there's nothing new in this budget that we'd be doing next budget year

from this current budget year. You are correct. We're pretty much status quo. The increases

are related to inflation and salary and benefits.

I just note not as much of a question to your point on the I don't know if this is where you're going on some of the services Inflation for right Townsend and some others for those that we are able to RFP if we haven't RFP Any of those services in the last year or two? Maybe that's something we should start I would suggest and hope that we can tee that up maybe in the next year or two depending I don't need to do 100 RFPs next year, but where it makes sense let's start looking at where we can start doing some comparison shopping with other potential service providers for some of these these opportunities and see where we can maybe identify some savings where it makes sense and then on the unfunded accrued liabilities for pensions and OPEB right the right PERS is drop their assume rate or return to six point six seven that they will very likely continue to Lor that. I think we had a few pretty good years of returns the last few years. I don't know that I think it can't count on that and we're not counting that and PERS is not counting on that going forward. I think they still intend it correct me if I'm wrong they still intend on likely reducing and phasing in a Lor assumed rate of return in the coming years below the current level even, which would mean our unfunded liabilities will continue to grow. I know we continue to prepay above our, to the extent we can out of our budget, and when we have funds, we're continuing to pay into the trust fund to front load some of these costs so that they can earn whatever earnings person is going to do for both OPIP and the

pension liabilities.

What have we done any analysis in terms of? Do we know where what the target?

rate of return

might ultimately be for PERS and how that might impact our Any any thinking around how much it's going to continue impact our budget going for a general fund to pay for what the pension bond is not covering

I don't know what their intentions are, how much Lor it's going to be, but I can contact them to see if they're looking at Loring it again. As far as I know right now, we're at 6.8 discount rate. And like I said, their fiscal year, 23-24, which they haven't calculated and haven't added it to the UAL, they reached 9.3 return. So I'm hoping that maybe they won't reduce the 6.8, But at least we'll look at not not increasing as much or maybe a credit for the 26 27 year But I can work with CalPERS to see if they're looking at reducing it even more from the 6.8

Great, you know, whatever we can do to continue to monitor that obviously it that's a potential a very likely pinch point on our budget continuing going forward and Something we have to pay for and then the open or the open liabilities are just I mean they're very worrisome too we have to pay we're trying to pay some of those up front but we've been pay go we've been doing pay go for many many years and those are continuing to build up and we don't have a bond that's paying for not for open open liabilities up front

I'm going to interrupt the rest of you guys before we kind of get into the specifics on the questions I want to set the table because I think this is good to let our audience know how we kind of went about this process. So Martha, help me here. When you go departmental presentation, you're going to go into each specific department. But what I want to do first is focus on the citywide. I'm calling it enterprise of the citywide.

And if you kind of go back to the, not the pie,

but the chart that shows the $74 million.

The general fund.

General fund, okay.

So let me interpret this, and you help explain this to me, okay? So for last year's budget, and we're almost at the end of it, so it's safe to assume that we're pretty much there, right?

Right. Last year's budget of, oh, you flipped on me. Okay, so.

You want revenues or expenditures?

Okay, let's go to the revenue first.

Okay.

The revenue last year that came into the city was $72,874. That means money coming into a city from taxes, fees, whatever they are, money coming in, in flow to the city was $72,874,000 and change. Correct.

Okay.

Now let's flip to the expenditures.

The entire expenditure for last year is, is that $69,503? So the difference is?

It's $3,000,000 and we will be, it's $3.3 million and we are moving that to committed catastrophic.

Okay.

So in essence what the city did was the city had a surplus I had a savings not not necessarily made a lot more money but we had a savings of roughly 3.2 million and change however you're proposing that we don't really have money

set up in the emergency fund catastrophic fund which we as a group

here and I'm sure the prior group have been trying to put money into that for rainy day for emergency purposes and your recommendation this time is to put roughly three million in there. Correct. Okay so I just want to make sure we're clear the city didn't make ninety one million dollars last year our entire income last year was roughly seventy three million we spent roughly 70 or 69 and change and that's the balance sheet that's the income statement. Okay okay after that then do we have any questions if not we're gonna let Martha kind of go into the department and from there we'll kind of dig out what each pertinent department has.

Just along those lines, Martha, I don't know if you're going to go through the fund, our 90 mil, our reserves posture and kind of just quickly detail that to the mayor's point

or if I can prompt that.

If you're already going to do it, then just.

I already did the reserves, but we can go through it again.

Yeah, if you want to just detail right the general fund posture for reserves and then where the rest of that is dedicated towards

really quickly so

We have in general fund reserves, which is part of what's in our banks in our investments is

Let me find the page here. It is we have

At the at the end of fiscal year 25 we should have about forty five point two million of that 14.2 will be in committed 30 million will 30.1 million will be in unassigned and 135 will be unassigned the 30.9 assigned includes any carryovers of obligations that we have to our vendors it also includes several CIP projects including the fire station station 63 it includes some funding for UAL it includes the roofing, some street funding. It's mostly CIPs and carryovers and UAL.

So the simple answer to that is that it's money sitting in an account that's already spoken for, allocated for. It's a payment plan that we need to pay for this year's budget and for ongoing in the future, which we had committed in prior years.

Correct.

Not extra money that's sitting around where someone can use to do something.

Yeah, the only extra money would be the hundred and thirty five thousand dollars in unassigned That would be that the only thing is unassigned

All right, thank you which which to be clear

We will assign that because we want to continue to grow our existing general fund reserves which are still it's in reserves

It's in reserves a you we can move it all to commit it as council directs, but right but it does it in it's it is part of the reserves

Thank you

I do have a question for Martha

So regarding, I know you went over our debt service for this current fiscal year,

and according to the budget binder, our total debt service for this fiscal year,

or into 2526, $11,724,000, correct?

Yes, I believe so. Let me pull it up.

So generally, though, when it comes to, I guess, the amount of debt that we take on, Are there any restrictions as far as how much debt we are alLod to take on, either from the state or from Fed? Are there any restrictions on how much debt we are alLod to take on annually?

Not necessarily annual, but as a whole there is, and I don't have that number.

City Attorney, do you know that number? No? I will get that.

our total revenues is the annual debt service we would be alLod to carry.

Off the top of my head. But we probably shouldn't even go there. That's a little high. Yes.

I will get an answer and let you guys know right now, but we can.

Any other comments or questions?

One question.

So I understand the surplus from last year, $3.371 million, is going to the emergency catastrophic fund. What has been the balance of that fund in the last few years? And also, what has that fund been used for if we've ever used that money from that fund in the past?

So I want to say that when I started back in 2020, that the catastrophic was at $3.3 million. And when we issued pension obligation bonds, it was quite, even though we had a 20-plus million in reserves, the catastrophic was only assigned the 3.3 million. And when we did the POB bonds, they requested or they asked that we increase it, that we increase it. So we have, we've been adding half a million every year into the committee. we were at 5.8

I think at the end of 2024 yes and because

we have the surplus of three we are recommending to increase putting the remaining three so that we can reach

the 12 point I think we would reach

12.3 and then we would have sufficient per GFOA requirements guidelines we'd have sufficient money in the reserves

for catastrophic

so 12.3 is the sufficient requirement what what has this fund been used for in the past it's not

used it's it's it's it's there for a catastrophic event it's like for example if we would have not had uh for example if we wouldn't have had um uh the funding when covid was happening council, it requires council approval to unassign it from catastrophic to be used for, let's say, salaries or roads or some kind of incident that occurs. So when it goes into committed by law, council has to vote, a three to two vote, to unassign it and reassign it to something else. So for example, something simple, the Petrillo Grande we have a few councils ago before my time committed 1.9 million 1.8 1.9 rounded up million to the petrero grande project so i've already let our public works director know that when they're moving forward with that project they're going to have to come to council and ask for it to be released from committed and appropriated to their budget for that project we cannot use it without council approval and just to maybe to

the point of that question as well. So Martha, the reserves or the Ketosh Rock

reserves and generally our reserves could be should be set aside for use when an emergency happens. So for example when if an earthquake happened we need a front load money for repairing streets or do this or that where FEMA may not be able to provide money up front or the federal government can't just do everything for everyone. That's something we would have to fund if we have a dramatic recession that causes a dramatic decline in tax revenue, that's something we

would potentially decide. You would be able to consider at that point to use that money to continue services or you would leave the money there and reduce services. It's up to the council's

discretion. But it's important to have it for an emergency. It's for an emergency, yes. Which can

and does happen all the time and we have not been at the the funded level for reserve for

cash reserves that the target level that our that GF recommends we have not been there but if we

bring it put into three million we will we'll arrive at the end of 25 we will have arrived to the 20 the 15 percent of the count that GF recommends and then that that target fund level

for cash truck reserves as our general fund continues to grow that target level will continue

to grow too yes because it's 15 15 to 20 percent of the either you can either base it on revenue or you can base it on expenditures i looked at it on expenditure side so it's so we uh so it's 15 to 20 so like i said we'll get there and then we can monitor every year and if it goes up we can

continue to increase it uh i got an answer so for enterprise funds it's about 25 as our city

attorney said but for general fund it's about five percent it's a much Lor ratio but i can but we only have one general fund commitment and that's for uh the seamen so we're very below the

the threshold and just a tag team it government goods section 43605 actually allows 15 on general obligation bonds so 25 is for the enterprise 15 there isn't actually you're legally alLod by the California Constitution to go into massive debt from the standpoint of if you exceed

revenue for the city.

The Constitution doesn't allow that to happen, but it requires two-thirds approval by your

voters. So that would have to be a ballot proposition. I don't recommend that.

I'm also looking at the mayor since he has a job, too. I don't think we would probably not find a lender or we would probably not be able to

borrow that much money.

No, we're actually good here.

We're $11 million. I mean, we can borrow.

Debt service can be up to $18 million.

We're half of that, so we're about 12.5%. So we are financially sound as a city in terms of debt service. So kudos to everyone here. Without questions, then let's move on to the department presentation.

I'm sure we'll have questions going into that.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council. Laura Bourgeon, Finance Manager. I'm pleased to present the proposed fiscal year 2526 department budgets. So the budget document provides a major accomplishments for fiscal year 2425 by program, but for time's sake, we will be highlighting just a few.

Citywide 2425 major accomplishments includes the passing of ballot measure LG and measure BE,

as well as developing an economic development strategic plan,

which includes business alliance and small business assistance programs.

We approved new commercial and residential refuse contracts. We developed a new city mission, vision, and values. We implemented the new CAD RMS system. We installed various public arts. and with the elimination of Interstate 710 Freeway Extension Project,

the City of Monterey Park is receiving funding to improve mobility and capacity,

and the City has initiated several 710 projects,

which include the Adaptive Traffic Signal Synchronization Project,

the Monterey Pass Road Complete Streets Improvement Project, and the Garvey Capacity Improvement Project.

As with the major accomplishments, each program also provided fiscal year 2526 goals and objectives. Here we're highlighting a few that align with the city council's strategic goals and objectives for fiscal year 2526, starting with ensuring public safety with a modernized and community-oriented approach by installing license plate recognition cameras, maintaining stability of our city's fiscal and human resources by conducting development impact and building permit fee studies, strengthening our local economy and enhancing housing opportunities by implementing the economic development strategic plan, adopting a new five-year plan for HUD CDBG funding, and implementing monitoring program for affordable housing.

also maintaining building and

maintaining building and modernizing

infrastructure and facilities to support the current and future needs of our city and community by prioritizing the completion of water bond funded projects and completing the design and beginning the installation of additional EV charging stations as well as advancing the permanent memorial process. To expand access to community resources and services by evaluating community transportation options,

procuring a bookmobile to facilitate

mobile outreach, and implementing the Parks Master Plan.

Enhance public communications and civic engagement to reach all members of the community, which we hope to accomplish by completing a refresh of branding materials, including the city logo, marketing tool, and city colors, to name a few, and develop emergency crisis communication protocols to keep residents informed. The city council fiscal year 25-26 budget is $214,251, with five FTEs budgeted. City Manager Fiscal Year 2526 Budget is $4.9 million with 11.7 FTEs budgeted. The City Clerk's Fiscal Year 2526 Budget is $22,624 with one FTE. City Treasurer Budget is $24,568 with one FTE budgeted. The City Attorney's Office fiscal year 2526 budget is $898,000, no FTEs.

The Finance Department fiscal year 2526 budget is $6,866,782 with 21 FTEs budgeted.

HR and risk management department 2526 budget is $1,917,551 with six FTEs budgeted. Community development budget for fiscal year 2526 is $3,702,686 with 14.5 budgeted FTEs. The police department fiscal year 2526 budget is $33,501,404 with 128.25 FTEs. The fire department budget is $22,844,853 with 64 FTEs budgeted. The library budget is $3,508,540 with 26.5 FTEs budgeted. We want to make a correction. The budget document that was published had an error on page, I want to say it's N5.

It had a zero budget, which is corrected here on this table.

General fund budget of $3,289,779 and special revenue funding of $218,761,

which totals the $3.5 million previously stated.

The Recreation Community Services Department fiscal year 2526 budget is $4,307,764 with 36.75 FTEs. The public works budget is lengthy. For 2526, their budget is $43,373,879 with 74.25 FTEs. The non-departmental function accounts for costs that are not generally associated with a specific department. So it includes the general liability, post-employment, and workers' compensation. The 2526 budget is $27,580,490 with no FTEs. The capital improvement program budget for 2526 is $17,034,321.

This includes the enterprise capital projects totaling $2,950,000 for fiscal year 2526.

Street construction projects totaling $7,312,837.50.

And community improvement capital projects totaling $6,771,483.50.

That concludes the presentation, and staff is available to answer any questions.

can't answer them then the department heads can help answer them. Okay. On the

public works budget total budget item right that I see a reduction of six

almost six and a half million dollars. My guess is that's just because the billing for trash I assume the trash billing has been under public works and that's just there where is billing directly where in Athens are billing directly and so that's just we're not counting that as revenue anymore is that

Is that it?

That's correct. We used to pay also Athens, and we don't pay where they collect themselves.

So that is correct. Refuse.

We no longer pay refuse to the company.

We still pay our refuse. Yes. Perfect.

On the city manager line, I'm just looking at, I don't know what page this is, but actual

2024 cost was just under

$1.7 million. The budget for this fiscal year is $2.5 million.

I think we moved some staff

over from some other part to city manager's office, but can you just detail what was behind that relatively large chunk from the previous fiscal year

or this fiscal year?

Are you looking at page E1 with the

city manager's department and it went from $8 million to $4 million? $800,000. Which one are we looking at?

Well, I'm looking at C16 C16

The five-year summary of expenditures and transfers in by fun types

Oh, yes, we the city clerks a city manager

Oh, yeah, so we move city clerk the city clerk division was moved under the city manager and

The city clerk was left is hazard it like our city treasurer city clerk has her own division

but the actual staff is under the city manager.

Okay.

And then I'm just, I'm looking at Carl, but the city attorney's line, there's a relatively healthy increase from this fiscal year to next fiscal year. I'm noticing 2022 where it was a lot Lor. I'm just going to do a broad encouragement to our city attorney's office to see if, I know this is the full budget and we bill for services.

There's a retainer agreement,

but then there's also we bill for services as used. So if there are opportunities to find savings there, I don't know if there was any specific project that's driving this cost increase, but if there are ways to avoid, not that we want to go cheap on attorney advice and work, and of course we want top-notch work, but if there are ways to find budget savings in this particular item or any others, of course let's look for those and find find those opportunities so mr. mayor members of the council

if I can just address that briefly my firm has taken over many of the functions that previous special counsel took over so for example right now two of my partners are handling hr matters including negotiations with the various bargaining units so that is technically it's an increase to the city attorney's budget because we didn't previously provide those services but those costs were still being charged to the city just by other law firms. So from that perspective, we have taken on more responsibility, including, for example, criminal prosecution, pursuant to the city council's direction, increased rule and code

enforcement, and what have you.

So message received, but I just wanted to make it clear that we're not feeding at the trough, we're expanding the trough, so to speak.

Appreciate that.

I think the explanation is yes there's an increase in this budget item but then you'll see the decreases in the other department items which washes out.

Right Kuo?

Not being an accountant? I would say yes.

I have a question.

Since we're jumping around different departments. Under public works, again, you know, under the accomplishments, I know we highlighted that we implemented the one-year pilot program for the traffic spread, which I've taken personally, and I think it's actually a great service. But I know the pilot program, but I'm just curious. I'm looking under our services budget and how it looks like we are projected to spend $2.293 million. And of that amount, how much are we using for the pilot program? If any, or this is grant funding that we are funding this.

One second. Yeah, well, we can get the number, but yeah, it's a small percentage of that total.

A lot of that total goes to the Spirit Bus for their services.

And I know right now we're still, of course, doing the evaluation of the Spirit Bus service,

but again, it's, you know, looking ahead of, you know,

if we decide to make the, trying to express a more permanent program, Because, again, based on my own observation, it seems very popular. But I know there are those who still like the Spirit Bus system. So I'm just looking ahead.

I'm just curious.

That's why I'm asking how much right now are we using in terms of our budget for the express service? What I'm getting at is whether or not it's sustainable long-term to do both.

So it's about $300,000 for VIA currently.

Okay, so $300,000?

$300,000 for their services. Okay.

And we would come back to council once the pilot is completed to evaluate leaving the services as is, reducing services, increasing services, and that would come at whatever cost would be proposed by VIA.

Okay.

So $300,000 for VIA services. And then what is the breakdown of what we contract for spirit bus services?

1.2 million. 1.2 million.

1.2.

So right now we are spending about 1.5 million in total in transportation services.

And remind me again of the evaluation study for Spirit Bus.

When will that come back to the council?

That was completed. So we brought that back to council.

And so part of that was the reduction from five routes to four routes. And so that will be getting out to the public. We started it with our Public Works Week. We'll also be doing outreach to the media, via social media to the public, via the Cascades,

to let the public know.

So we've already done part of that process. When we actually go out to bid, that's when we'll look at the transportation program as a whole. Additionally, we're going to be talking with Montebello, Rosemead, and Alhambra about transportation services as a whole. I was talking with the public works director from Rosemead.

They're looking at working with VIA.

So we're looking at how we can have crossover between Rosemead and Monterey Parks.

There's a lot of moving parts with transportation.

As we know, transportation isn't a huge moneymaker. But we're trying to evaluate how we can be most efficient with our budget while also providing services for the larger community as a whole.

So what you're saying is you're looking at regionalizing services. Out of curiosity, has there ever been a thought of also regionalizing our municipal services? Since, if I'm not mistaken, all of our surrounding neighbors have some type of municipal transit service.

Is that a possibility? That's part of that conversation.

So Montebello probably has the biggest transportation services. So we would look at probably partnering with them to see what makes the most sense being the larger transportation group of the cities that I mentioned

So that would be part of that conversation. Okay, sure

And certainly I know in the future if there is opportunity, you know certainly I would love to maybe even provide our own feedback to the via regarding the NPK trying to express service because good I I actually for one week took it almost every day. So

Certainly, but also I have an opinion about how may be improved

Yeah, they we plan on coming back to Council with an update They've actually reached out recently to see about coming with some statistics to give an update to Council You know obviously we're still on the initial pilot phase Which will be about six months for free in September is when we go to a paid service

So we'll see some of the how that might change

For the demand services, but we'll be coming back to Council with some updates absolutely. Thank you

Thank you for that I I see the bus everywhere and every time I'm driving, or the van, I should say. My daughters are always like, hey, because they remember getting in the van. But I still have yet to ride it. But I did see one of my fellow friend parents dropping off their daughter, and they drove in the van, actually, to school, which was pretty cool, I thought. So I'm glad to see that it's all over the city, but I'm also very eager to see a report in the future in terms of where we're at. I did have a question for Martha. Martha, one of my concerns, which I'm sure are your concerns too, when you were sharing the data on the increased cost, that really worries me because a lot of those increased costs were over 100%. So my question is what we are doing to kind of, because a lot of this is out of our control in terms of the economy, right? Increased costs, inflation, tariffs, all these different things that are causing that to go up.

Can you hold your dot? Can you put that slide back on? Because it's a slide that shows the different cost factors so that way we can all see it.

I mean, because I'm sure we're predicting that the costs for a lot of these services will continue to rise. And, you know, I don't want to say the R word, but you know what I'm talking about. As stuff, you know, develops in our economy, you know, we are fearful of increasing costs.

What are we doing?

And just to mention, I'm really glad to see that the $3 million surplus that we had is being put into the committee catastrophic.

But as costs increase, what are we doing as a city to help mitigate?

Because it seems like a lot of those costs and services are important. And to the Council Member Wong's point, you know, in terms of, you know, I'm not sure. I'm hoping that if we RFP some of the services that we're doing, it will reduce our costs. But just in terms of other stuff that we can't, like janitor services, for example, buying simple stuff like Kleenex and toilet paper, those types of things continue to rise. What are we going to do to help mitigate some of these costs?

You want me to answer?

We do a proactive look at our costs and try to find the better price or the most appropriate price for our city, we always go for three bids to make sure that we're getting the best price for our money. General liability, for example, we switched insurances a while back, and it was slightly more expensive, but we don't anticipate going too much more. Workers' comp, I know our HR director works with our staff to try to be proactive and minimize our workers comp claims and as long as we have a better proactive approach to reducing workers comp claim that that can maybe flatten or reduce electricity I know our public works director is working on a program I believe he brought it to council already to bring in solar panels into the city and that should support our electricity bills and reduce our cost. So we are looking at different ways. Janitorial service, we did recently switch services.

So that did go up, but we did look at the best price for the city.

But we are going to have much better janitorial services for the city. So again, we are looking at different approaches, looking at different ways. We are like our finance right now is looking at some software that we have, and we're trying to maybe purchase different software that can consolidate and reduce our costs. So we are actively looking at ways to reduce or minimize

our costs to the city. Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I just wanted to chime in here. So definitely we understand the request to try to RFP for some of these services to see if we can get better pricing. So we will absolutely do that. As Martha described, janitorial services,

for instance that we just recently did the RFP for, pricing came up higher, right? So our new

contract, as much as we'd love to go out to RFP with the anticipation that all of our costs will come down, there is going to be scenarios where we RFP and the contract amounts will be greater than what we anticipate. The purpose for the slide was to provide an update and an understanding that there is costs that are out of our control. We're definitely trying to monitor that and be mindful of our expenditures long term. Some of the increases definitely like electricity and some of the items on the screen here. We do evaluate. We do work with departments. We try to find other solutions where we can. This budget year, we were mindful about requests for additional staff. So on the one slide for the additional staff that we were looking at, they're really reclassifying current positions, not adding any new positions to the budget because we understand that those are long-term expenses as well. So trying to find solutions where we can definitely is always on our mind to try to reduce costs long-term for the city.

Thank you.

Just on the RFPing, it doesn't guarantee that we'll get a Lor price, but it does guarantee that as we have to go out for these services, we will get the best price or a better and best price for what is out there and available, which saves us on what we otherwise would have spent to procure the services.

broadly

for one I just

jurisdictions in LA City in LA County. They're looking at most really significant deficits State of California is looking at a very significant deficit And all that in the context of likely federal funding cuts and we do receive some federal funds the president I was in DC with skag last week current president has proposed to Completely eliminate all federal housing funding which for us is CDBG and home funding I don't know if that will become reality, but the reality is if you look at our For a chart that shows CDBG home funding over the over the many years that we've received it that no mount has continued to shrink Regardless of who the president is and so expecting that will continue to be trying even if it's not eliminated all of these sources of federal funding are likely to continue to recede as opposed to grow And then any state funding that we received state grants we received over the years are all potentially going to shrink or not happen in the next year or next few years unless the economy goes in a completely different direction than it's going. So the context, I think, that I am seeing this in is we're in a pretty good spot. A lot of that credit to the staff and my council colleagues for being cautious in approaching our fiscal situation over the last few years, helping to build our reserves, helping to, and the residents of Mori Park, of course, passing Measure MP, and this last cycle as well, some measures that have helped to stabilize our financial resources to get us to the point where we are back to saving some money to build up our reserves to the level that they need to be. No one's here to make a profit. We're not here making money for ourselves, for anyone. All the money that we don't spend a year goes straight to our reserves. to pay for other things that we know we need to pay for and to set aside for emergencies to have on hand. So I just want to appreciate, express my appreciation for the staff and my council colleagues for getting us to this point where we are not like City of LA and other large jurisdictions and some neighboring jurisdictions as well looking at cuts, cuts for staff, cuts for services and resources for the community and in fact we're we're growing to make sure that we're continuing to provide services at the level that we have been able to provide the last few years. And that's in large part thanks to the residents of the city and others who continue to shop in our city and also goes to speak to the need for making sure we're investing in our businesses to help support businesses that help generate this revenue that we are dependent on and help to provide the services that keep residents here happy and paying their property tax bill, which is a large part of our general fund revenue source. So appreciate all that. I think we're in a, I don't want to say a really good spot, but we're in a good spot, especially compared to some of our neighbors. But the context that I'm also looking at this in as we project into the next year and next few years as well, into some of these conversations, just the amount of uncertainty I think we've been talking about here. But I think all of us know and have been paying attention to the news. there's more uncertainty than I think we've even had in the last few years around where the economy might be going and what the impacts are going to be potentially to us here in Monterey Park specifically even with tariffs and these other things that are going on and the likely potential, the likely impacts revenue that might have long lead times but we have to be prepared for these tougher times THAT ARE LIKELY TO COME.

SO HOW CAN WE BE BEST PREPARED FOR THAT,

CONTINUE TO SET ASIDE FUNDING FOR RESERVES, CONTINUE TO GROW THINGS AND THEN ALSO APPROACH OUR BUDGET INTO NEXT FISCAL YEAR AND THE FUTURE FISCAL YEARS AS FISCALLY CAUTIOUS AS POSSIBLE, WHICH IS I THINK WHAT IS PRESENTED HERE. AND I APPRECIATE THAT WE ARE MOVING

IN THAT DIRECTION.

KIND OF BROADER POINTS, AND I THINK WE'VE KIND OF TOUCHED ON THIS IN SOME OF THE DISCUSSIONS already where we can find savings let's absolutely do it and I've heard from from City Hall employees as well over the last few years and especially the last few months as well I am for spending money though where it helps to in the long run save us money so if there are technology projects we mentioned the CAD project for PD if there are projects that help to eliminate mundane work And technologies that we can integrate into our operations that have upfront costs But in the long run will save us time and money and free our staff to do higher level work That's much more interesting and not just calculating things or getting videos together or putting Finding something and in a video or whatever that we need to find or the minutes from 100 years ago

I

I want to encourage staff in our city right to explore into to be innovative in integrating those technologies

and to be open to them.

And I, for one, am very open to supporting spending money upfront so that we can save money and be smarter about that in the future

and the years to come.

And so if there are more of those kind of projects like the PD, if there are AI tools or others that can make the work of City Hall staff easier or even integrate that into, right, We're talking about for water, the next generation of smart meters, which can make the lives of our water crews much easier and also help our residents and businesses see leaks and respond to issues faster. Let's make sure we're doing those and integrating those as quickly as possible. So if there are new technology products or other things we want to integrate into our practices, please, I welcome that. and I think the council welcomes those kind of projects that long term really do produce savings for all of us and make all of our lives easier. The other point there I want to make is also long term planning. I think naturally over the years, right, it's easier when they're boom and bust cycles and there's lots of other issues we can get into in terms of municipal finance and public finance that aren't the best way to approach kind of long term thinking around investments, especially capital investments for for cities like ours but to the extent possible i know we've been doing a little bit more of this the last few years right master plan for water master plan for sewer the more that we can be proactive in our infrastructure investments and maintenance and our people investments as well our human resources and human capital investments and resources in terms of attracting retaining and keeping right high quality employees here let's think through those kind of opportunities and programs as well um and start thinking about kind of longer term especially on capital projects right we we can find the money oftentimes to build a new library uh build new fire station but we've also got a fire station on monitor pass road that is well beyond what probably should have been its useful life and we've done a lot to make sure that's safe for the time being but these are things that as we kind of let them creep and we don't have money this year we don't have money next year uh how can we get more we have to wait till we get lucky and get some grant money from when the state has money or the federal government has money to give out like let's not i i think we need to start to adjust our approach on a lot of these infrastructure investments especially our city facilities that are continued to age and many which are already pretty aged to be more proactive in replacement for a lot of our city facilities to make sure our employees but also with the community members that utilize these facilities are using safe facilities and clean facilities and the most right modern facilities that are able to provide the services that we need to provide for both our staff and for the community and so where we can on white water sewer streets uh we haven't right even city facilities our gyms fire stations all that stuff city hall we've we haven't been able to given whatever fiscal circumstances that ups and downs uh been pro be able to be proactive in setting aside funding for the eventual replacement and major uh investments that we to make to update and upgrade and modernize our facilities and equipment so where we can we should start and i know we have been starting i'm looking at sean uh to start to master plan some of these and have kind of longer term thinking and strategic planning around all of our facilities and also our physical infrastructure for the community so that we don't have to wait till a street is 20 years beyond its useful life to have to replace that and issue a bond to pay extra interest over time to do that? Where can we start to be more proactive in setting funding to be more proactive in setting these 10, 20-year replacement cycles for equipment that, or whatever the useful life is, to start doing more proactive replacement

of infrastructure where we can.

And I know Sean's going to get right on that.

My question kind of along those lines is, We've adopted in the last few years a sustainability plan and an economic development strategic plan, and in a few months we'll be hopefully adopting a parks master plan.

I think I know the answer to this.

I know some of the programs that have come out of the economic development strategic plan and the sustainability plan are already baked into this budget, but there's a lot there and nothing in the parks plan is not done yet, so potential investments that are going to come out of these plans are not baked into this budget.

Is that right?

The parks master plan, no, we don't have any items in there unless we don't know.

No, it hasn't been adopted yet.

So the point I'm trying to make is this budget is going into next year, keeping things as is,

but it does not include the major investments that we've already identified in both our economic development plan, Our sustainability plan and our upcoming parks master plan that's going to have that boat All of which are already have long lists in our I assume the parks master plans come out with another long list of Investments that the community wants the city to start to make that we currently if you look at our budget Do not have the money for and so Just trying to make that point that we will need to find Revenue to pay for all of these things right there are some programs from the economic to the strategic plan that we are able to fund through CDBG with the small business grant program loan grant program and some other things that we have been able to bake in the budget but if we're as we're looking at and I don't see anyone from the pool here but as we're looking at these large infrastructure projects for our city facilities and the parks plan and all that stuff none there's no there's very there's very little money for capital products of that scale in this budget that's just sitting

around right that's correct okay let me interrupt and jump in so i just want to take a look at that

file real quick so just think about where our revenue is this year versus our expenses

and that chart is a telling chart because it basically says in the last two years our costs, and not all the costs, just those costs went up by 24% in the last two years. But really, you look at the number, the majority of that cost, probably 18% of that came within last year. And I will be very, very happy if the budget that we're putting in today stands and breaks even because looking at that and compiling what we have, our budget for 25, 26, you're increasing revenue by 1.26 million. 1.26 of the 70 from 69 to 71. And you're increasing expenses by 4.3 million. So from your 69 to 74. So you're basically saying you carry the budget from this year to next year, it's going to wash. If you have $3.3 million in surplus, it's going to get washed out.

But if you look at the expenses, that's not going to work unless you do more cost savings.

Those are not just general fund.

The cost, that includes other funds as well. And in the revenue you were mentioning, that's just general fund alone. Our revenue we are anticipating for fiscal year 2526 is on page C.

On C11, and we are anticipating $162 million in revenue.

$162 million in revenue, and our expenditures are $170.7,

and that's for all funds.

So we are pulling from reserves,

but that has to do with mostly like, for example, the water projects for the bond that we borrowed and other items where there's money sitting in there. We're not pulling from reserves for general fund. Those up there are not just general fund expenditures. They're paid by other funds as well.

Understood.

so that's my point. My point is

we got really good and lucky this year with the 3.3

with the expense projections

with the inflation numbers we're

seeing up with an uncertainty as

Council Member Wong said

in the economy

it's a different

look for next year.

Any other questions?

Hopefully not.

I don't

the net revenue we had this year, how much of that kind of offhand, what was our vacancy rate in terms of FTE in the city? This year I know it's improved this year from last year, from the year before.

I'll have the HR director provide us with the vacancy rate.

Is she here? I'm going to take a stab here.

Christine Tomikawa is making her way down, but on average, I believe we're holding probably around at 30 full-time vacancies.

Is that?

It could change. Hi, Christine Tomikawa.

I think we're probably between 20 and 25 now,

a vacancy for what we've got.

I know we've got a bunch of them open,

but we've also filled a couple of them in the past, like three months since we have that public hearing that we did we have filled a couple more

of those positions since they're in process and i know there's always a natural there's every

organization has a natural vacancy rate there's never i've never seen an organization that has 100 of all their funded positions or budget positions filled so understand that so is it fair to say martha and or others that at least a portion of the right surplus we generated this which is going to go to our reserves, getting our reserves to where they need to be, is generated because we've had more than a natural vacancy rate. And so just empty positions naturally have generated some savings that we will capture.

So, yes, the surplus that's going to remain at the end of 25 is related to salary savings and other savings that we've had in the budget. It's also going to be put on a sign for CIP projects that our public works director is working on that have been assigned and they've been approved by council to be appropriated but have not but we're still working on those projects so when you see the surplus when we come back for the act for for the act for for the financials the surplus you see is going to be related to that great so i just

want to make the point right we are working very hard to fill our vacancies uh and so we're going going to shrink with the extra the surplus we generated this year will dwindle as we fill vacancies and so we have a approach return to a more natural vacancy rate going forward correct uh the other question i have on our capital products i don't know what page if where it is uh but our current cip list as we've costed out do you have off end or do you know

what the total amount of that is currently? I believe there's a slide for CIPs correct?

Yeah. I have it right here. The total CIP for this proposed for fiscal year 2526 is $17,034,321.

$10. Do we have, we do have a five-year CIP list. We do, and it's in the back of the book. Yes,

we do have it, but it's in the, in the hundred millions. Yeah. Do you, I'm just curious if you

have the actual, the full number for every project we've identified. These are just the ones we've identified. There are many others that we have not identified and put on the CIP list. What the total

amount of that is. And we should have that here. It is, oh my God, it's really tiny. Hold on.

I know we have a lot of projects.

I'm showing $239,014,053.88.

So $240 million or so on our CIP list for the next few years of identified needs for capital improvement projects for city facilities. And how does that, I'm not great at math, but how does that compare to our general fund budget? or even our total budget, right? That's more than 100% of our total budget. So we don't have the money right now to cover all the identified capital needs that the city has.

Correct.

Three and a half times your budget, or three and a half times your revenue coming per year.

I'm just making the point, there's a lot of work we need to do on our city facilities, and that's just what we know we need to do, not anything new that pops up in the next year or next few years. And that's given, that's with this year's or last few years' best estimates even. There's been cost inflation and all that stuff and material inflation that's probably going to happen. So that's a low estimate. So just making that point, we don't have $250 million on hand to pay for all this stuff and to cover everything else we need to do. so to the best of our ability how do we start to tackle the CIP list the long term CIP list that we do have and just balance that with making sure we provide services day to day police officers, firefighters public works employees and everything else that the city provides for residents day to day and the community day to day so balancing these long term capital improvement or capital investments we need to make and maintenance we need to do and the new things we need to do for our community that the community is asking us for with the day-to-day operations. So we're in a good spot relative to where other cities are cutting services and cutting investments in capital improvement projects and not in a position to make these new investments. So we're in a good spot, but there's a lot of uncertainty going forward in the economy, and a lot of this could impact our ability to deliver on these things in the coming years. So we have to be, I think, and encourage the rest of us, all of us, to be fiscally prudent, but also to be smart in terms of how we make these investments that are going to help in the long term do good things and bring value to the city. So with that, I will end my comments.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions? No?

Do we have closing remarks for the budget?

We will be bringing back the budget to be adopted on June 18th.

Okay. All right.

So before we close out on that, I would just want to see if there's any general comments from council on this process.

Okay. Okay.

So we do have to take action tonight to receive and file. Before we go, do there any comments that you want to direct to the residents or staff here, to Martha?

I'll just reiterate my appreciation to the finance team and every department here. I know it takes a lot to put this budget together. I know this plan started many months ago. So appreciate all the the work and thoughtfulness that went into this and continuing to exercise fiscal Caution and prudence in putting this budget together I also know and I will repeat right. We don't know what the conditions are We never know what a few months from now will be and I think now more than Especially the last few years. We really don't know and there's a lot of uncertainty around Potentially a very different economic situation and not in a positive way five, six months from now. And so would urge our continued fiscal kind of prudence and caution as we approach the next fiscal year and as we look at adopting the budget for the next year. I appreciate the work that everyone put into this budget. I think it's a fair and responsible way forward going into the next year and hope that we can continue that in a long-term way and make sure that we have this long-term view on managing the city's finances responsibly and making sure that we can deliver services not only tomorrow, but years from now that the city, our community deserves. So with that, I'm happy to make a motion

unless someone wants to.

Let's see if there's any comments.

I just want to echo the sentiments from my colleague, but I also want to say that as a resident, as a parent in this community, I'm just very glad that we are fiscally solvent and that we are in a good position as a city. And I think a lot of that has to do with a lot of the work that we do together here as a city. So I want to be appreciative of that. I also want to send a message to the community just, you know, how much we are doing to be fiscally solvent as a city and to be able to fund a lot of the services that we are already providing to our residents. obviously we would love to fund every potential project but we all know that resources are limited that's the that's our biggest challenge in life right being able to do more with less and all of those different things so I think that we should be plotting ourselves and patting ourselves on the shoulder that we are not like a lot of our neighboring cities and and as the years and as we look forward to what is happening not just in our community in our state but throughout the country um there's a lot of uncertainty um and so i think that we are in a good in a good spot i i hope our budget looks the same if not better uh next year i mean not many communities can say that they've saved uh and um and for a rainy day um and i know that many communities face rainy days and remember um just you know months ago just fires winds rains um we are heavily impacted by a lot of stuff that's out of our control so very eager to continue this work and so also want to you know just like my colleague said appreciate all the work that went into this process so when I saw this budget I was actually very very excited so thank you so much yes you

know I think um for those who were able to go to the um public works open house you can see that

how much we have accomplished in terms of infrastructure. I mean, I know when I was selected in 2020,

a lot of residents were concerned about the condition of roads.

And I encourage people to go to our website to see how much we've accomplished in terms of infrastructure, despite the challenges of COVID, despite the downturn economy and continue to deliver services that residents care about. And, you know, again, I would rather be in our shoes than in neighboring Los Angeles, in which residents are just scratching their heads about why in Los Angeles they cut services to public safety

and other things.

But that's Mayor Bass's problem, not ours.

I just wanted to echo my colleague's sentiments. The staff really did a great job on putting together this presentation, and it's apparent that the city has done a lot in the last year. A lot of projects, a lot of roads have been paved. paved i mean there's still a lot that needs to be done but that you know we don't want to forget that all that has been done um and it's very clear you know the numbers speak for itself that there is all the funds in our city is allocated and so if we need money for anything else we have to take it from something there's no extra funds just sitting there um and you know like council member Sanchez said it's great that we're saving money for a rainy day in case there's an emergency

because the future is unpredictable okay well I'm gonna say something before we kind of go for the vote and I like where we're going I like our position I don't love it because obviously if we had more money in the lottery system we make more money so not quite there but then we're sustainable we're doing great among our peers and we're doing what's right for the city now Now, having said that, going back to Council Member Wong's point about setting money aside for future needs, we did that with water treatment system a few years back. We did that with sewer system, and that's all undergoing way, and then, of course, resurfacing. I think we're just on the cusp of

the parks project

right so I do have a vision Robert my vision is that with our 13 parks we need to do something because those parks have been here for a long time and that's why we engage you guys to work on that project and I think with the surplus we have I like to say maybe we put in the $250,000 in there, set it aside for the master parks plan so we can work on all the parks. Because if you don't take care of it today, it's going to cost way more later. And then we can just set that aside for the master parks project. And if the pools need to be done, if the gyms need to be done, pickleball courts, tennis courts, you start building for that in the future now if natural disaster happens and we need to kind of reallocate then it'll be up to the council here to say you know what parks are great gyms are great but we got a natural disaster here we need that money to go back in so my little tweak is I love this project we need to kind of take a vote on it but I like to kind of set aside 250 starting this year and if we have a surplus next year and another 250 so that the vision is to build on setting aside some money for the bigger project if we don't get funding from a bond or parcel tax we self-fund from our surplus assuming we continue to grow that way. If I may have

some clarification by this year do you mean 24 25 or 25 26? I think the

surpluses. For 25? Yeah, so instead of putting 3.3. So for 24, 25. Right, so instead of 3.3 into the

emergency money, maybe just put 3.05 and then the 250, 250,000, is that a good number? I hear some

nods, so I see nods. My next question is, would you agree, do you want it in committed or in assigned? It is an accounting practice.

It's a sign. Yeah, I would say just a sign. I would say it's I'm kind of indifferent in that

I think we will have far more than two hundred thousand dollars of work in the parks So it kind of won't matter, but assigned is the most less sign

Okay, so to the parks met we will assign to the parks master plan two hundred fifty thousand at close of this fiscal year

Yeah

Okay, when the parks master plan comes out that's going to come with the budget too, correct?

No, it'll come with a price tag, and then you need to figure out the budget.

Well, I don't think it'll even come with that.

Will it come with the price tag?

I think the understanding with the Parks Master Plan is it's a plan in place that identifies community members' wants, needs, requests for different park amenities and programs.

You are correct.

I think we'll have to facilitate with council and community members what is our priority from that plan to then find funds to budget for and plan for as we implement the plan.

Can that be, again, we're talking about signing funding anyway, I mean, can that be then part

of the rollout of the master plan about, you know, what are the price tag of all those projects?

I mean, estimates.

Well, I don't think the parks master plan will have engineers' estimates for each of

those items. So I think that's a separate process. process for the parks plans.

We did ask for an

engineering project for the pool

and so we could make those requests

as we're working on

I think what we'll do is we'll see the plan

and then based on what we see we can basically say do we have an estimate they can give us a round ball estimate then we can go back and say well go get engineers estimate to be more accurate I think that's the proper step

I see Robert

I

Give you memory members the council Robert DeGuerre director of recreation services Yeah

So I would recommend looking at the park plan and then deciding what projects we would like to go out and get estimates for that

Way we can get accurate current estimates versus getting estimates now and then having a list of estimates Of projects that we're not going to get to so that I think look prioritizing which projects we want to tackle And then if we want to get accurate engineers estimate that time then we can utilize those funding for that

But I would echo what the mayor is suggesting Once we I think when we bring the budget back and we close out this fiscal year it sounds like we will have some Uncommitted funding to set aside at least two hundred fifty thousand dollars from that to a sign for

implementing the parks master plan the act for comes around february and we during our closing we will if we have the funding we will move the 250 to uh to an assigned for master plan for the parks master plan the remaining if it's three million or less we will move to uh committed catastrophic and then that's how we'll close the books and present the council for adoption

I know ultimately it's just accounting, right?

The money is there.

But yes.

I have to make a motion unless the mayor wants to beat me to.

No, I think we have a motion by Council Member Wong.

Do I have a second? Second by Protemian. Let's take a vote.

Let's vote again.

The license. Okay.

Approved unanimously.

All right. My closing question is when the new voting system is going to be in place.

Digital? Soon.

Okay. Well, thank you. Mr. Mayor and members of the council, I just wanted to briefly thank the council for their support through this process. Definitely a thank you to all the departments who are working on their budget all year long, but definitely had to focus a few months back to really get these numbers put together. And a special thank you to our finance department, Martha and her team, who worked tirelessly on this budget for months and months and months. We really appreciate all the efforts, and thank you again for your support, Council.

Thank you, everyone, for all your hard work, and we are adjourned at 7.02.

Thank you.

I'm sorry.

you

you you you you you you you you