Sep 17, 2024 6:00 PM - Redding City Council - Regular Meeting

>>We are reporting back from closed session. >>City council met in closed session to. >>Discuss item three a. There was no reportable action. >>Okay. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for being here. If anyone wishes to address the city council on any item considered at this meeting, before or during the council's consideration of that item, please fill out a blue speaker request form located in the lighted alcoves at the back of the council chamber and submit it to the city clerk. The city council will allocate up to a maximum of three minutes per speaker for each agenda item. All right, thank you all for being here. We are going to start with the pledge of allegiance, so if you'd please stand 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, with liberty and justice for all. >>If you could stay standing, we'll have our invocation by Reverend Ray Simon from the campus pastor. For good news, rescue mission. >>Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the beautiful.Part of your creation that we live in. Thank you for the people you have. Placed here to give leadership and governance to our city. May they ever be mindful of their. Responsibility to your creation and the people who live here. We thank you, father, for the policemen who are here who give us protection. Keep your hand upon them as they do their work. Thank you for the citizenry who come here to express their support or displeasure with different topics that are presented. Thank you for the freedom that we.Have to do that. May we, God, be ever mindful of what we do and what we say. May we speak with discernment and kindness. I pray that those who lead us will make decisions with integrity and respect. May your peace be present in this place.I ask tender, Father, for your blessing.On the discussion and decisions that will.Be made in this room tonight.I pray these things in the name. Of my lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. >>Amen. If anybody would like a seat, overflow is open in the community room. Okay, we will begin with a roll call. >>[ ROLL CALL ] >>We will begin with presentation two. A Ted bambino of the Reading Rodeo association president providing an update of reading Rodeo association's activity. Yep, there, you got it. >>Thank you Mayor Odette for the time tonight. Thank you city council members, city staff. I'd like to welcome all of our members, all of our asphalt cowboy members, our fans and the public to be here tonight. My name is Ted Bambino. I'm the president of the Redding rodeo. And I just want to talk about the Redding rodeo and the successes we've had in 2024. Kind of talk about some of our plans going forward and what we need to do to get that accomplished. Obviously ready. Rodeo has been a cornerstone of our community for 76 years and hopefully going forward we foster a sense of tradition, bringing together families and friends of all regions of the area. As a historic event, it has grown significantly over the years and will continue to grow. Reading Rodeo is not only a celebration of our local heritage, but it is also a critical driver to our economy and our economic impact during the time of the rodeo. Our recent performance was strong. We have strong finances. We've had record breaking years. The attendance in 2024 of the Reading rodeo was over 20,000 attendees during the course of the event. This reflects a steady increase of the rodeo and the rodeo participation year after year. The economic impact of the influx of visitors during the rodeo translates to substantial economic benefits for our businesses throughout the area and it continues to grow. Our estimated economic impact is between eight and $10 million. The attendance this year we can see on the right hand side in the blue. Wednesday is 36 and it goes up to almost 6000 people on Saturday night. A little tidbit on this. Next year we're going to go to a four day rodeo. Wednesday will be a full event, not bowls and barrels. There's a lot of reason for that. I won't get into tonight, but we will have four days of rodeo next year, which everybody will enjoy. One of the things that I don't talk a lot about is the warm and fuzzies. We always get into numbers and finances and economic impact. There's things that the rodeo does that don't always hit the papers and don't always hit a lot of people's information books. Obviously special kids day with the asphalt Cowboys is something that's big for us on Monday. But one of the things is our evacuation center. The reading area is subjected to fires and fires come and they come in a hurry. And if you don't know what it's like, like I've experienced during the Jones fire to have a raging fire coming at you and you have five horses and a three horse trailer. It's pretty humbling when you come to the rodeo grounds and you have a place to go for a safe haven to put your animals and to make sure they're safe. It's very humbling to our crew and our people. I do want to reach out to lesson Bonnie Mason when the fires are reported and we do come up on watch duty now nationally that we're an evacuation center, Bonnie and Les are here with their rv. They're here, set up, ready to take the evacuees, and they're here to watch over them. And it's a very warming thing. We do have some local businesses that donate Shasta livestock donates a lot of feed for this, and we appreciate their help. You see the little gal here on the right hand side. We had two little surprises on the goats there, and they were born in the evacuation center. And I think Bonnie named them Redding and rodeo. Right, Bonnie, pretty special. We're pretty excited about that. But those people were there for the full time of the fire and very, very appreciative right now. We'll talk about our growth opportunities. Some of the things that we've been doing of recent is we've installed some new entrance gates, securing our properties to make sure it's presentable and secure. It improves our attendees, our entrance to our facility, and makes it look like a first class facility coming in. We know there's a lot of work to do currently. Right now, we're wanting to install the north end Ada ramp. That's part of our current lease that we have. We have permits in the center here that have already been pulled. Bennett has done the work on that. Skip has pulled the estimated prices, which are between $170,000 and $180,000. Thank you. So you can see on the north end of the arena, at the end of the grandstands in the top right hand corner. That's where the Ada ramp will go. Projects to complete before the rodeo is we want to fence the contestant parking lot. The contestant parking lot's kind of not a real warm and fuzzy place. It's a gravel lot. It's behind the civic auditorium. We have a lot of riff raft that goes on in that lot during the course of the year with one of the most famous places to spin hookers in Redding. They're all over down there. But we need to fence that. We need to keep it nice, we need to keep it presentable. We can't put asphalt out there, we have to have gravel or dirt for the contestants that come in because these hundred thousand dollar horses cannot stand on asphalt during the time of the rodeo. So it's very important that we have that done. We want to fence it off to secure it. We want to replace some interior fencing on the inside of the arena on the north end, which is shady and needs to be done. We want to install handrails on the main grandstands for safety reasons. Not a requirement, but just something that we feel we need to do. Those costs are $80,000. As we go down into some of the bigger projects in renovation is we want to install vip boxes. The vip boxes will be over the bucking chutes. This is a rendition drawing. This is maybe not exactly what it's going to look like, but give you the idea, we're going to redo our announcer stand, put some partitions in there and have vip boxes. This potentially will extend from the north end of the arena all the way around to rodeo flats. This is kind of a big improvement here, but the cost will be about one point eight to two million dollars to do this project. So going forward, our big picture, this is something that I want to lead up to to let you know that this is our vision. This is where we want to go. This is where we want to be. And this is a facility that we've got from Utah. This is actually days of 47. We will probably use part of this and part of spanish fork, Utah's design. This fits right over our footprint. It looks huge, it looks obvious, but it actually setting it right down onto our facility, it fits perfectly. There's a lot of things that will go with this, a lot of costs that will go with this. We would have to incorporate the improvements that we've been doing to facilitate this so we don't just throw that money away the next ten years as we want to facilitate this, you can see underneath we'll be moving restrooms, concession stands and such underneath this, which will give us more room on the outside of our facility. In recap to do all of these things are very achievable. But we need a long term lease in order to do these projects. It's essential for our longevity. We can't keep patching this thing up, spending our money, hard earned sponsor money, hard earned money from this community, and just keep putting band aids on it. It just does not work. So we want a long term lease to ensure the rodeo remains a cherished position for the reading area. And it also is so our rodeo can thrive and get bigger and bigger and bigger as time goes on. As we stand here today, we're kind of at a crossroads. We want to make sure that we can go forward with a long term lease and preserve tradition that has been in ready for 76 years. It's imperative for us, we've been asked from the council over the years for a plan. We have a plan. We participated in the riverfront specific plan extensively. We enjoyed it. We saw and met a lot of people. The outcome was as we expected. The rodeo is where people want it to be. So that was a benefit for us. Now it's time for you guys to kind of come to the party with us and demonstrate your commitment for us to make sure we can achieve these goals for our community. This isn't for Ted. This isn't for the red shirts. This isn't for the yellow shirts. It's for our community. And we can do this together if we get together and get this done in a reasonable amount of time. So with that, I'd like to thank you for your time. I'd like to thank you for your consideration for the long term lease so we can go to our meeting next Thursday and actually have something to work with. Okay. Thank you. I would like to hand Jason this is our first draft of our lease to give to Barry and his staff so they could review it, so we could actually have a starting point on where it needs to be. It's an extension to our lease. We know that the surplus land is part of the issue. We know that we need to submit to HUD. We realize we need to submit to HUD, and we're willing to do that to submit to HUD. Our lease original lease was September of 2018, and we are exempt from the surplus Land act under the law from when our lease started. So we just want to make sure in our meetings that we have the lease intact so we can talk about all of these things that we have to go down and all the tasks that we have to do to get this accomplished. Thank you. >>All right, we'll do public comment first. Lon McCasland. John Dunlap. Mike Quinnipood. >>Ted's a little taller than I am. I appreciate you having me. Thank you for listening to what I have to say. My name is Lon McCaslin. I was the second to last captain in the Shasta county sheriff's posse in 1980. The next captain was Bob Thurlow, and he was the last one. And the first president is sitting right back there. Kip Powers was the first president in 1982 and 83. The reason I bring that up is because a lot of things happened in that short period of time. For a reason for us to become the reading Rodeo association. The history is well written. My point is that the man who started this rodeo. Who happened to be my father in law and my wife's father, John Balma. When we moved over to the rodeo association. He had visions. Much like what Ted was talking about for this particular endeavor. Because now, since we cut our ties with the sheriff's posse and the county. We were able to do some things we couldn't do beforehand. That vision is no different than the vision that these gentlemen, ladies, the yellow shirts, all of them have right now. We have grown as a rodeo association over those years. From 82, 83 till now. And you can see the results of it with what Ted showed. There is no difference what they're doing now than what we did. Except they need help. I have a short note my wife told me to read. Because she is the daughter of John Ballma. She says to me, you tell them that I speak for John Ballmer now. So anything she says, you guys better pay attention to it, okay? Because I did marry the sheriff's daughter. And I had a great father in law. And we had a lot of time together. Fun time. And the fact that. Go back to my vision statement. Their vision and their mission is to make it a better show. Bring the community together. But they need help. They need help from everybody out here. And they need help from everybody up there. And I hope we get that help to give them that lease that they deserve. To make this one great event for Redding and Shasta county. Thank you very much for listening. >>Thank you. Thanks, Lon. And thank your wife for us, too. Thank you, Lon. Make sure you tell your wife we said thank you as well. John. >>Hi there. I'm John Dunlap. I'm. Excuse me, the retired manager of Shera Dunlap and Sawyer. Engineers and planners. Introduced myself and stake I have in this. We were the major designers of everything out on Dana Drive. Took all that, all the planning, roads and so forth. Big things we did. We formed the assessment district, did the design. And got the Churn Creek sewer line extended across the river. Which made gold hills and everything out there available, practical. Then as we came along, we had a problem on the east side. It wouldn't perk. It wouldn't do anything. So we talked about it and said the only thing it's going to handle is a new sewage treatment plant. So we started out. It's a long story and a lot of sweat, but you now have a sewer line that extends from the Sacramento River, a new plant, up to Simpson College. About 25 years ago, somebody proposed to put a hotel over on the Sacramento river where the part of the rodeo association is. And my partner, Frank Sawyer, who had done some pretty good sight finding, he did Foothill High School, part of the city hall, a sewage plant, a lot of stuff, and read Emerson's house. So anyway, he goes out and he starts looking and he comes back and says, I'm frustrated. Rudding's not rural anymore. I've taken a look in the infrastructure, including the sewer, the power for the lights. They're going to have to have sewage put out there. They're going to have to have a parking lot in and out, transportation. And he said, it's just going to be a major problem. And not only that, people out there do not want it. They don't want the lights in the middle. And you try to find a good sized piece of property, there aren't any. So he comes back and he says, kind of jokingly, what we need is we need a site. Say, like has a freeway on one side, cemetery on the top, a river on the other side, and maybe a major public building on the south side with a lot of parking. He says, and it would be really good because a fire safety would be close to a hospital and a major fire station. Sandra Minnie says, hey, that's what we got. That's exactly what we have. You're not going to find it. Well, it turned out that they dropped the proposal and the hotel went away. Now I'll finish up. Here's my conclusion. One of the greatest values of this property, boarding the Sacramento river is irreplaceable open space. And there's no one better than the rodeo association to shoulder this responsibility. They must be given the chance to do so and begged to do so by taking a 24 year extension on their property. By the way, they just had a breakfast and they had over 12,000 people show up. I thought that was interesting. Thank you. >>Thank you, John. Thanks, John. Mike Quinn, Steve cone, ginger Solido, and Sheriff Jim Pope. >>Good evening, council staff and all you. >>Guys out here, red, yellow, and whatever color. I'm surprised I even have to come and talk here, but I was here the night when the fly Fisher group got the 25 year lease on the building. And just before the vote, Mister Dequisto stopped and he said, I have one more question asked. Mister Tippen, does this mean that the rodeo association gets their 25 year lease. Mister Tippen, you said? Yes. So what are we doing? Ad hoc committees, things like that. So I'm going to request the ad hoc committee reports for the writing convention center, big league dreams, the soccer park and the fisherman's building. Because if you're asking for ad hoc committee to come in here, I want to see the ones that they were requested to do. Now, there's a difference between the rodeo and those other four leases. The rodeo association built the rodeo, the city built the other facilities. So I want you to explain to me, why is there an ad hoc on this? There's absolutely no reason. >>Nothing to say. >>Let's talk about what happened when you don't pay attention to those buildings. The soccer park had a lease. Nobody paid attention to it. They were supposed to be setting some money aside to replace it. Who ended up replacing it? Was it ru that spent the $6 million? Because the group that got the lease didn't follow through. Big league dreams has been a mess for years and nobody has forced them to keep it up. It was a beautiful facility when we built it, and now if you go out there, it's almost unplayable. So how is that helping this community? It was supposed to bring in all. >>The tournaments and things like that. >>So if you would please send me the ad hoc committee reports for the other four, I'd appreciate it and I'll share it with everybody. >>Thank you. >>Thanks, Mike. Steve Cone, Ginger Solido, sheriff, Jim Pope. >>Council, citizens, employees. First of all, I'm not going to address Joshua Johnson is councilman Johnson, because I don't believe it was appropriate for the three Bethel members, the three Bethel majority, to appoint him as counsel with only a few months remaining until the election. I believe that that was done in order to give him an advantage at the election, and that exists when you're an incumbent, no matter what Julie Winter says. If you want to argue about it, well, we can discuss it at every meeting if you want. Okay. So when it comes to that being said, at the last reading city council meeting on 9324, Joshua Johnson brought up the fact that with the creation of the leaves of the civic auditorium with advanced reading, they had created a committee. On that committee were two council members. He was saying that how well that situation worked. I don't believe that ten year contract worked out well at all, at least not for the city of reading and not for the Redding Rodeo association. It totally screwed the rodeo by not giving them the ability to have parking for larger events, something I believe was intentional. Currently, advanced riding is paying a lease payment that was originally cut in half to 120,000. And now when Bethel left the, they're paying $60,000 a month or a year? A month. A year, probably a year. $5,000 a month. I would rent it for $5,000 a month. I think I could make money with that. And they've got all the entire civic auditorium and all the parking. So you guys shafted the rodeo over at pittance? >>Yes. >>They've done a few events, but I'm not sure. If the rodeo didn't have that kind of deal, they couldn't even do more events. So creating an ad hoc committee, which is supposed to be a wonderful thing, creating a great contract. I mean, it's failed multiple times with these committees. It's just. It's a misnomer. It's incorrect. They've got a lease. Look at the lease. Work a deal out, sign it, get it done. >>Thanks, Steve. Ginger Solino and then sheriff Jim Pope. >>Good evening, ladies, gentlemen. I am ginger solito from Exodus farms. I spoke last time, but tonight I'm going to share a story with you, so you have to humor me. Special Kids Day 2018. Special kids Day is an annual event put on by the Redding Rodeo association. It is magical if nobody's. If you have not been there to witness it, it is the most magical day. And the asphalt cowboys that takes place at the reading rodeo grounds. And reading always happens the Monday of rodeo week. It took ten minutes just to get her to climb to the top of the two step mounting block. Every time she took a step, she would literally shudder with fear. Her body shaking, her teeth were shattering. I can't. She'd cry out. I can't, I can't. I can't. And I promised her I would hold her hands as we made it to the top step three times, she retreated, getting off the block, but she was bellowing. I can't. I can't. Once more, she climbed to the top step, waiting for the little black pony to come around. As she saw her, she started to clap her hands in anticipation. But then the shaking began again. Her teeth began to chatter. Her body trembled, and this time, she shrieked. I can't. This final time. Her scream was so piercing that nearly everyone in the crowded rodeo arena stopped to see what was wrong. Her mom encouraged us. Just go ahead. Get her up there. My daughter really wants to do this. She wants to do it. So we surrounded her with people. We carefully placed her in the saddle. She was still shrieking even as I wrapped one arm around her back. And I promised her we'd take very good care of her. I told her to reach down, pet that sweet little lily, scratch her on the withers, that she could trust Lily to take good care of her. We walked a few steps. Her little body was absolutely rigid. She shrieked again. I'm riding a horse. Yes, darling, you truly are. And I am so proud of you. You are the bravest girl I have ever known. Every few steps she would take, she would gasp for air. And she would declare her truth. I'm riding a horse. And she would shake. She would start to shake from head to toe with her old fear. And then she would take another deep breath. She'd declare her truth one more time. I'm riding a horse. This incredible young girl taught me so much that day. I don't want my fears to define my life. I want to declare my truth loudly and boldly and walk it out in courage and joy, just like that young lady. I heard a lot about vision already. I hope I hear a lot more. It takes courage to walk out vision. Took courage to walk out mine. Take courage to walk out yours. It's going to take a ton of courage for these incredible men and women to walk out theirs. Our visions are not that different. The courage is to make it come together. Please move forward. Thank you. >>Thank you. >>I just want to. I just wanted to acknowledge Ginger. Thank you so much for all you do for kids in Shasta county. You mean a lot to this community. And I recently was out at your exodus farms. My daughter had a horse out there. And without you, I don't think that we'd have been able to find a new home as she went to college. So thank you so much for everything that you did and for those kids. It is a phenomenal facility. Thank you. >>Sheriff. >>Popeye, you're up. Your turn. >>Thank you, folks. Thank you, madam. Vanessa, my friend right now. >>Always. >>My name is Jim Pope. I'm a native of Shasta County a long time ago. And, Mike, I'm here to support the rodeo ground and the asphalt cowboys. I'm opposed to a committee being selected before a leash is signed when they've been doing it for. We have a track record down here. I'm a life member of both organizations of rodeo association and cowboys, and we've been doing it for 75 years or so. And why can't you just sign a lease and let it go, as Mark mentioned? I seen it read in the paper. I think you mentioned that, didn't you? And anyway, I support not doing. We don't need a committee. Shasta county. We got too many committees now, taking too many time and too much of this, too much of that plus money. But I think the rodeo grounds has a track record that proves the rodeo and the cowboys, that they've been good tenants down there. And I encourage the council to vote opposing committee. God bless you all. Thank you. >>Thank you. Okay, that's the end of our public comment. We're not taking any action. It's just a presentation. But if there is going to be action, it will happen on item twelve. So if you want to stick around for the meeting, that's what we'll be doing. We can propose some of the things that have been said in an item twelve. And if you stick around. >>Can I mark, just ask. Go ahead. >>City manager Tippen, if we were to talk about anything in item twelve, I mean, how much discussion can be had? >>Not a lot. I'll hand it over to the city attorney in a moment. But just for clarification, item twelve is simply for the council to have consensus to bring something back at a future meeting. And that's all you can do. The substantive discussion would need to occur at the future meeting after the proposed action has been agendized and the public has an opportunity to see it. >>But we would be able to at least suggest some things in an item twelve that could then come back to the following meeting, especially to. There already is an ad hoc committee. >>And I'm saying this as much. If there's anyone that wanted to stick around till item twelve, I don't want them to feel like they'd lose out if they didn't stick around. Because there would be that full discussion prior to any action at the next. >>Meeting if there was consent. >>Okay, I do have questions for Ted, if you're going to do any of. >>That, want to do that now? I mean, for Canada, we can do. >>So. >>Are we allowed on presentations? Are we allowed to ask questions of the presenter? >>Sure. >>Okay. >>Yeah, we can't take action for item twelve now, but we can ask him questions. Yep. Okay. >>Ted, would you mind coming up? >>Okay. >>Does that work for you? >>I just have some comments. >>Jason, are you controlling the slides? Are you able to pull up the bleacher improvement slide? It was one of the latter ones. Thank you so much for coming to present. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I just have a couple of questions since we're in public. These are the things that you and I have been talking, and we talk fairly frequently now. I feel like my wife, you, a couple of kids. We're on the speed dial. So I appreciate the conversations and that. What's been your relationship in the last few years with the city of Redding? Can you describe that? >>Well, I would say huge strides. You know, cindy, we invested in general manager, another investment we made. Cindy's been fantastic for our organization, keeping me and Bennett in check for spending too much money. So we have money. But her communications with Barry on a monthly basis has been very helpful to the communication. We all have jobs and businesses, and I think a lot of people forget that, that we're doing about 60 hours a week trying to get this lease done. We haven't even talked about rodeo yet. Usually we're in the planning stages for rodeo. So with Cindy being able to communicate with Barry, it's something that we. I don't know that we forget about those communications. They're just not on our docket because we just don't have the time. Time. So that's been very helpful. We're always quick to criticize people in general. And I will say, Joshua, that your communication and your demeanor from six weeks ago to now has been very enlightening and very helpful and very encouraging that we can progress down this road and get something done. And I appreciate that. And, you know, Mark has always been there for us, and we appreciate him and everything he's done. And we want to convince the rest that maybe don't have the trust in us to trust us and to listen to the people of this community and to see what we've done in the past, because we're just here for the community. We don't get paid a dime for this. This is a non paying job. But we give our heart and soul for the love of our community. It's not self serving. If it was self serving, we certainly wouldn't be doing this. So we just asked. There's a lot of emotions involved, and you can see that with some of the speakers, and rightfully so. When you spend a lot of time and you don't feel like you're getting anywhere, it becomes frustrating. And so we just want to express our partnership availability with the city of Redding. Like Mister Pope said, let's work together and let's just get this done and move forward. We were up in Pendleton, Oregon, last week. I sent some pictures to some people here on some activities that were going on. It is absolutely incredible what a rodeo can become of a city that has the city behind them. They are behind them so much that their economic impact, their economic impact for one week of a town of 18,000 is $16 million in one week, and their city is 100% behind them. And it's really encouraging. Now, are we going to get there in a week or a year? Probably not, but we certainly have the potential. >>I appreciate that. So, going to the improvements that you want to make, you mentioned a $1.8 million investment. You mentioned some smaller investments, a 1.8 million, and then there was a 4.5 million, which is this. If you did this vision and jump to this, would you need the 1.8? >>It's a stepping stone. So this is a concept, actually. This fits our footprint. >>Yeah. >>So this is kind of giving you the idea of what we can get to. Obviously, we spend $1.8 million. We would want to incorporate it into this facility. This facility, as you can see, facing north with the river. We would take that north end of that out and have the view of the river, if you can. Vision sitting under the left hand side grandstands. You're going to be watching one heck of a rodeo. Looking at the sundial bridge. Pretty awesome. >>So how much of the funds that you foresee? Between 4.5 plus 1.8 plus 180,000. And there are a few other investments that you're making. And I will say this. Let me pause for a second. A lot of the other long term leases that we had to answer some of the public comment as well, was like, for instance, Turtle Bay. They got one of the longest leases that we've provided in the city of Reddding, 50 years plus, correct me if I'm wrong, another 50 year option, something of that nature. This is, you know, HCD has changed some guidelines. There's some different things. But there was a $25 million something around their investment that gave them that lease. So, you know, that's why I'm asking some of these questions. You're actually saying, hey, we want to make some big investments here. And that's why I'm trying to understand, you know, what is the timeline for this? If you were to go after this, how much of it do you think would come from grants? How much do you think would be financed, and how soon could you achieve this? >>That's a great question. This here would probably be a ten to 20 year plan right here. What we're looking, the ones I showed earlier would be more within the five to eight year plan. So we can get the vip boxes, those generate income, you know, so we can get the announcer stand a little bit more suitable for a national audience type of announcers that we have come into reading. The north grandstands are wood. We want to replace those grandstands with higher, taller, aluminum grandstands so we can get more people. Those things would all be incorporated into this facility at the end of the day because we've already spent that money. Our lights would be fitting to this because we've already paid for the lights. But just in the last five years of our own money, without any grants or anything, we spent about a million dollars on just stuff, just functional stuff. And you can see where we're at. We finally moved Julie's trailer out of the back. You know, that was a big deal. And we. We had one of our members hook up that trailer and take it out to Keswick, illegally, by the way, and had a police escort down Eureka way. But by golly, we were going to do it. So we're listening, you know, we're hearing what you're saying. We want to beautify it as well. We really do. >>Yeah. And I. I want to say something I think we all know, and. And I hear it over and over again. And since, you know, my earliest memories of being in Redding, this is a rodeo town. This is a rodeo town. This is what you know. And if you guys want to be in that parcel, that's what I would like to see as well. In addition, there are a number of people who have also said, hey, I love that we're a rodeo town. I just want to see more events there. And in our conversations, if I can be public about it. Our conversations. That's been your intent. That's what you want to see as well? What I want to see is, what do we have to do as a city and as a rodeo association and maybe other partners involved to get to that vision quicker. >>Very well said. >>And so what I'm saying is, so if you're saying ten to 20 years, what can we do to bump that schedule up? How do we do that? >>I'm going to have to jump. >>That's a great question. I think we're more in a one step at a time deal. Realities. Excuse me. >>The way this is agendized, you know that it's not really appropriate to get. Now you're starting to dive into the details, which I understand, the way the law works, and I'll have the city attorney emphasize this, if we don't agendize it for this type of discussion on the lease that prevents others who may have wanted to participate in the discussion from being here because they see it as simply a presentation. So the law works such that we have to agendize something specifically so everybody knows what's going to be discussed. This is not that. So asking questions beyond what was presented starts getting into that gray area. And I would caution the city council to sit here. >>Can you just help me out? Just because I'm, you know, I'm the junior member here, so all these guys are so experienced. What did I ask that was outside of the presentation? Do you know? >>And I would just say my concern might actually be a little bit more to the extent that we're getting into planning statements of intent, where we will be looking at discussion essentially of action as to where this would be going in terms of the specifics. >>Okay, I understand. Thank you so much. Here's what I always say. This is why I'm very excited to continue our conversation. We have a lot to discuss. Thank you for committing to the conversation with us. We, from my vantage point, I'm committed to seeing a way where we can partner on getting to this future in the best way possible for our community, involving the rodeo, involving all the things we want to see down there. So thank you so much. >>Thank you, council member Mazano. Yeah, we have a couple. Just hang tighten. >>Yeah. >>Council member Mazano. >>Thank you. Not wanting to violate the policies that I've learned over the four years on this council, I'm going to keep it short. I agree that the surplus Land act does not apply. I agree with your assessment there, but I am not an attorney, as Mister Tippman once told me, and I appreciate that, nor am I, Ed. But I will tell you this tonight at the item twelve, I will make the recommendation that we eliminate the ad hoc committee, direct staff to draft a proposal, and then commence the horse trading. All right? And that's all I can do. Whether or not that gets the support of my peers on the diocese yet to be seen. I don't think you have to wait here until 10:00 or 11:00 tonight to see that you can read about it in the paper, because Mister Bender's out there taking ample notes and we'll know tomorrow. But that's my plan for the item twelve. Eliminate the ad hoc committee and direct staff to draft a proposal so we can start horse trading. Thank you. >>Thank you. >>So this obviously is not your. I won't even say it, not the first time that we've been talking about this. Currently your lease goes till 2029. That's where we're at right now. So in those discussions that we had last year, I know that part of that was to get to this place where you could actually have a plan. The request to extend another five years to 2029 for your current lease was to put you in a position where you could have this presentation. So this is why we gave the extension, which is the only thing that we were, by surplus Land act rules, allowed to do. If you're not, if you're going to do some type of construction and you had the ADA things that you guys were still doing, we could give you five years. What prevented a ten year was that you needed to do construction, and if it was ten, it went to surplus. So as far as a long term lease. So the ad hoc committee, I didn't understand this myself, but the ad hoc committee, technically is myself and Joshua Johnson. That's the ad hoc committee, which we then bring in the rodeo. We bring you in to have conversations for us to be figuring out terms, what HCD has said, what the guidelines are, you know, a lot of the details, so that we can really get down to business, so that when we meet with you, action is happening every single meeting, so that there is no delay. So that is the preparedness that we have been doing. So from what I'm hearing from you is that I think. I think, unfortunately, one of the things that has happened is that people have made comments like, the surplus and act doesn't count, or it doesn't matter. That. And that's preventing us. And that is not the truth that we understand. And so one of the ways that we are going to figure that out, exactly what the rules are or exactly what will apply to this piece of land, is to actually put it forth to HCD. So if we are to come to terms of a long term lease, which is over the ten years. No, I want to ask him, are you okay with us going to surplus Land act? >>Yes. >>Okay, great. That's really the only barrier that I've seen. So if we're past that, then we're in a good spot, I think, to do what we need to do moving forward. Yeah. And I would be happy to make an item twelve to reflect that. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. We will get on to the next presentation that will probably not be this exciting. So thank you. >>Thank you. >>Presentation two B by Danny Orloff. Visit Redding, tourism marketing director providing a quarterly report regarding tourism, marketing and promotion efforts for the city of Redding. >>Danny, we think you're exciting, too, though. >>You are excited and you wear a suit of. Forgive me, forgive me. >>I'm stepping up. Every single day. >>Should have been yellow. Yeah. >>You look sharp. >>Thank you. It's Calvin Klein. Well, I didn't know that there's gonna be that many people in the room today. But overall, the sense of community is unreal. And being in this position, be able to highlight our community is an honor and a privilege. So I'm really, really excited to show you guys what we've been working on. We just got back from Oceanside. I know it's a hard job with Caltravel. So the advocacy day, think of theirs, visit California. They're more branding and Caltravel is more advocacy. So entertainment districts, sustainability and other topics are able to talk about so we can sustain growth at a. At the right speed. Overall, we'll be able to talk about industry trends, partnerships, marketing, pr, as well as some data and results. These last few months in the last three years has been awesome to be able to partner with multiple different agencies, from the historical society, from the Ready and Rodeo association. Cool April nights, Viva downtown, National Park Services. Overall, it makes the job a lot easier, especially whenever we're bringing people into town. We were able to go to multiple different trade shows, talk about adventure and travel, two different summits to learn about the industry trends. We were actually nominated for award for one of the best brand campaigns, Basecamp two adventure. So multiple DMO's, whether it's county level or city level, they put in their marketing campaigns and we went up against San Diego and LA, which was huge for Redding. We didn't take home the gold, but being able to be one of the three was huge amongst all the big cities in the area. I was able to go to an advocacy day and then go to Google as well and learn from the experts. With social media, marketing is our bread and butter. Facebook is one of our top platforms. Just they really understand the user and they understand their interests. So it makes it a lot easier for those who are going to travel here. Through Google, we do a lot of disruptive marketing instead of intent search, so if they're looking for Redding specifically, they're already interested. We want to find those who are interested in other activities that we have. >>Facebook. >>We've had over 21.3 million impressions on our ads and organically and then Google at the 1.5 million mark. Instagram is our bread and butter. It's one of those things that are. You can storytell whether it's videos, photos. We were able to have a 30% growth rate just this last year. Over 2 million impressions, 6% engagement rate. You guys can see the stats. I don't have to read about them, but it's been awesome to be able to utilize that platform to really tell our story. We've noticed that content differs throughout Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, our ex overall. But we've noticed through Instagram it's really about those local legends. We were able to highlight Mike Mercer being a fly time expert and talked about a sunny city campaign. All the things that we have going for us, the Redding set, go basecamp for adventure video, those are a lot of our high performers. But you see it's almost a half a million in reach just through that platform. At the very end you kind of see that spike. That spike is we teamed up with Redding tourism and marketing group and they help fund our sunniest city campaign. So that's that spike that you guys see towards the end of the year. Overall, Facebook, they really love those rich stories, the AHA moments. So whether it's the Providence geosphere, in the farms, the caves, the downtown park and then as well as the reading lights, overall we were able to bring 14 riders here from all over the world. We actually landed an article in western horsemen. So thank you for Bennett for talking to them. Over 40 articles were written just about reading and visiting to our beautiful area and then 41 different publications. There's a lot of cross marketing going on so you can see some articles might be on Yahoo, but also they came from backpacker. So Backpacker magazine did an article on us and talking about how avoid those crowds in Yosemite and come experience our outdoors, field and stream magazine being the top fishery in the United States. And then Johnny Jett, which is a big travel publication. Some of the results we've had the highest year in tot in the last three years taken on the contract which has been amazing to see, especially with the economy at the moment. But this last year, $7.2 million in tot, 7.8 the year before, 8.3 the year before that. If you think about the car fire and how full the rooms were, it was at 6.8 thousand. So being able to see the growth has been awesome to showcase what we really have to offer. And you can see that through the different reports that we have. The occupancy is up 4%, revenue is up 29% and this is all through hotel years. And you can kind of see the different overall occupancy, average day rates that ADR. So the average day rate is going up. >>I'm sorry. >>It actually went down a little bit. So it's about $125 for a hotel room average. But overall we're making more money as a city. Short term rentals, they're up as well. Occupancy is up and so is revenue overall. I'm just really, really excited for this future for us and being able to learn from the industry experts to continue to have a sustainable growth. I'm here for questions. Whatever you guys need. >>So it looks like your summer months are your strong months for tot. >>Yeah, yeah, yeah. >>Does that go into September? >>Is that like it goes into September? We're actually working on this last little push for an endless summer campaign. I mean, it's hot all the way until October. It's 90 degrees in October. So being able to really capitalize, it's after Memorial day, it tends to dip. But for those who missed out on vacations, they can come in and experience for us. And seeing those bigger events that are happening in the shoulder seasons with garden of lights and glowing wild, those newer events has helped out as well. >>Great. Anybody else? Thanks, Danny. We appreciate you. Okay, moving on to the consent calendar. No public comment. Just kidding. Alex, how could I have forgotten you? Alex Valecki, come tell us what you think. Steve Cone. Chris. Sir. Okay, we'll just. I'll hold us. Steve cone, you're up again. >>Hello again. Also at the last meeting, Johnson said he'd be willing to have Mark Mazzano as a second council person on the rodeo ad hoc committee. I think that was totally disingenuous. As it went on, he even, he even made a motion to have Mark Mazzano appointed, but it was already clear councilman Mons Meridette and Julie Winter had already weighed in on it and they were not going to support Mazano. So it was to me, posturing and using the dais as an advertisement platform. My opinion now what we ended up with is two council members on the ad hoc committee, Meredith and Johnson, that both of them had advocated to sell the property. Both of them want to sell the property and they're the two council members on the ad hoc committee. Now. I wonder how that's going to work out in 2022. You stated you wanted to sell the property now, now you kind of back off. Now you're saying, oh, well, they said they wanted to do a big arena. I'm sorry, I thought you were a developer. Do you actually just take somebody's word and just give them a contract? Sell the property? Because they said they were thinking about building an arena. Then we went on and spent $1.2 million developing a specific plan because those buyers didn't want to put up the money to give us specifics. They did not want to pay to develop a specific plan. So we ended up doing it, and it's going to end up on a shelf. That's what happened with that. And you supported that sale and so did Tenessa. So having those two as our ad hoc committee pretty much lines it out. Now, as far as Tunesa keep bringing up the. >>Government'S surplus Land act. >>Yeah. Not the specific plan, but the surplus Land act, considering the property for sale. When you do that, then you also have other criteria, like putting, making it available for people to purchase for low cost housing, which you might, or affordable housing. You might think, well, that doesn't make sense, that property is too valuable for that. But, you know, you think of low affordable housing and you think of them collecting maybe $400 a month rent. But that isn't true, is it? Because if we look at the 79, 76 units that were built uptown in what I call the border wall project, because it looks like it was made out of surplus border wall material. >>I agree. >>Those, I've had people that don't make a lot of money apply to those apartments, and they didn't qualify because they made too much. And what the deal is, all of those, not just 10%, but all of those apartments qualify for section eight housing. And so there may be an apartment that's rents for 2000, $503,000, and they could be paying as little as, what, four or five, $600 a month to be in there. I could see the same thing happening down with the, some of the property down on the riverfront. If we don't prevent that, give the roadie their lease. >>Thanks, Steve. We'll have Senator Maurice Johansson, if you'd like to come up. >>Thank you. Thank you, councillor. Thank you, Max. You know, I. >>Come a little closer to the mic. Your mic, it's got the green light on it. >>Oh, you got this. All right. The problems. Well, first of all, if we would give me. Pardon me. I have spent untold millions of dollars to make sure, or hope to make sure that we have not only the relief association, but this building or that property should be used for nonprofit. It should be used for Redding. I helped build a lot of these damn things, and I'm tired of this. All I hear is money, money. It's my feeling, just to give you an indication, I have probably all, probably served more government than anybody here has or will have. I can tell you I probably have not only served with governors and all kinds of good stuff like that, and I learned a lot. And then I think, what is it that we are? What are we if we go all the way back to the time we built the stock down. Things I probably have spent on my old funds. Ten, $15,000 and I don't say that because they're proud of that. I'm going to give everything and dime I got to solve this problem. I have serviced with probably 30, 37. No, about 37. Various counties and cities. And what is it that makes us different? What makes us different is the people that is here. Yes, I can I find that. I found that the access is terrible. We need to do something to make this little difference. May I continue? >>Yeah, sure. You can take another 30 seconds. >>Thank you. >>The. I love this place. I build a lot of buildings here. My name, if it doesn't make any difference, I have a lot of buildings in town with my name on it. What I am after the needing is why we. What had this made us different over the years? What makes it different you call. I mean, people know us. They know who we are and they appreciate what we are. If the only thing that we are looking for is, and I know a lot of the players in game and all the rest of the stuff, it's money. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in seeing what can happen in a place like ours. But you got to maintain the idea. The idea that we're going to let it go to hell in a handbasket makes me mad just thinking about it. I have built a lot of things in this town. I built, my God, probably several hundred thousand dollars and stuff. It is done. This town needs to be careful that we don't lose our identity. >>Thank you, senator. Thank you, senator. Thank you for coming and speaking. >>We appreciate you giving me the time. >>Absolutely. Thank you. >>When you get to a certain age. >>We appreciate you. >>Thank you. >>Thank you, Chris. S. Jonathan and then Robert Trigere. Did Alex come back? >>Okay. >>Good evening. I'm here to shift gears a little bit. Okay. Saturday I was eating at Tortilla Flats. I'm a homeless advocate. I've been a homeless advocate for 20 years. I was the executive director of reading loaves and fishes for six. As I exited the building, I saw, much to my chagrin, a homeless young lady with the backpack and the red and white cane tapping her way across the street there and ran right into tortilla flats. I thought, my God, what it must be like to be homeless. And not only homeless, but blind on the streets of reading. So I watched her a little bit further and I thought, well, she almost broke her ankle on the curb. I thought, I'm just going to give her a couple of bucks and engage her in conversation. She told me that she's frustrated and angry with her situation. I thought, you know, I hope she's not faking it. I'll go over to the mission and see who and what she's about. And sure enough, she is legally blind. She stays at the mission, but they've kicked her out. She can only eat at the good news rescue mission because there's some kind of disciplinary problems. I asked a green badge there at the mission who is a paid staff member, what's going on? Well, you know, she's allowed to eat, but she can't stay. I called the phone line that the good news rescue mission provides and talked to one of the nighttime staff people. He said, I'm on my day off. And I explained the situation to him and he said, well, we have to start somewhere. And I thought, my God, you starting with homeless, blind women to discipline them. I'd like the ladies here, christian ladies that are here in front of me, to walk a mile in that poor woman's shoes. Imagine if she's groped or attacked. She can't even identify the person that did it. The mission is full of perverts, child molesters. As a matter of fact, there was a group called Holy Family books and gifts that used to be here that adopted two children, two young males from the mission. Both of them were molested. I am beside myself. That's millions of dollars. Mister Tippen was on the news a couple years ago. The county got $48 million. I guess it was switched over to here. I don't know. There's been some kind of difficulty. But you can't tell me that we can't get a roof over this poor girl's head and a door that locks for her safety. You know, I don't ever agree with Governor Newsom, but I agree with him this. Where did the money go? There's no accountability. And the Bible says in Ezekiel, I took out Sodom because they were haughty before me and they did not consider the hand of the poor. So I wish that you would bless this city and take care and be aware of what's going on. Adult protective services, I called them. It was recording. They're supposed to be 24 hours a person on that phone. It was a recording. They called me back and said, how did you get on the recording? They were more concerned that I got on the recording. >>Thanks, Chris. Thank you, Jonathan. And then Robert Triger. >>Hello. Hello. City council and my fellow citizens, M. Jonathan and I just wanted to say I'm thankful for the college education that. I've received in this town because my. Hometown did not have a college. So I'm thankful for everything that's happened. With Shasta College and Simpson at the same time. And so I just wanted to say thank you. >>Thanks. Thanks. Jonathan Robert Trigere and when it comes. >>To this thing with the homeless blind woman, I'm beginning to think Pogo was right when he said those immortal words, we has met the enemy, dot, dot, dot, and he is us. But I'm up here to give my little semiannual spiel about how we need to keep our eyes on the prize when it comes to the rodeo grounds and not blind ourselves to short term development dollars at the cost of keeping memories at the rodeo grounds as well as the civic auditorium alive for the next generation. And so I'm kind of in the camp of the folks who say, let's see if we can't get this done, because talk, quite frankly, is cheap. And I'd like to see a few results before my mom and dad's grandchildren come down here on a road trip to actually go to the rodeo, and then afterwards use that as the trip wire to send me to shady pines if they think they can catch me. But like I said, just keep the stuff about the rodeo fresh and on the agenda here at the city council meetings, and you'll be seeing me adding my two cent worth here and there about anything that comes to mind. Like, say, when it comes to the renovations, maybe farm it out to, say, some young kids that are getting out of the military who need the practical experience to get their general contractor's license. That would be a good place to start. And by doing that, like I said, I'm trying to get to talk to the VSO out of Shasta College so I can sit down with him, see what we got going on there. And then as the kids come out, they take their paperwork over the VSO, do their thing, and then head over to the Shasta builders exchange or wherever it is to get the, whether it's your general contractor's license or h vac or electrical, plumbing or whatever it is they're after. But like I said, in the meantime, just remember, don't go running off that cliff a la Wiley coyote and holding up your sign that says help to blind yourself to the short term development dollars, as opposed to keeping the rodeo grounds and the civic auditorium so that future generations can make some of the memories that I have. Thanks. >>Thank you, Jonathan RObERt all right, we are going to move on to the consent calendar. Consent calendar contains items considered routine and or which have been individually scrutinized by city council members and are anticipated to require no further deliberation. If a member of the public wishes to address an item on the consent calendar, please fill out a speaker request form submitted to the city clerk before the consent calendar is considered. It shall be the prerogative of any council member before this consent calendar is acted upon to one comment on an item. Two, respond to any public comment on an item. Three, request the record reflect an abstention or nay vote on an item and or remove any item and place it on the regular portion of the agenda for delivery of a staff report and our extended discussion or deliberation. Does anybody have any requests for the consent calendar? Vice mayor I have no request, but. >>I'd be happy to make a motion to approve the consent calendar. >>Yes. >>Second? >>All right, we have a first and a second. All those in favor? >>Aye. >>Any opposed? Okay. All right. Moving on to 6.1. Consider adopting a uncodified ordinance number 26 70, approving a development agreement with the Greenview Development Company and Mark Guyton relative to the Westridge master plan and Lily toy will be giving the presentation. Thank you. >>Thank you very much. Good evening, Mayor Audette council members, this project before you is for a development agreement for a single family subdivision project on the west side, and this is for exchange for accelerating public road access through the subdivision from existing subdivisions and they are requesting for an extension of time of their subdivision maps, two of which are soon to be expiring this year. The project is rightfully named Westridge Subdivisions and is on the west side of town on the westerly border of placer and it consists about over 300 acres. It is consisting of five parcels just south of Campo Calle and north of Canyon country height subdivisions. The zoning is for single family in yellow and in green is open space. General plan is consistent. It is greenway and single family, two and a half to three units per acre. This area is highly inundated by the very high fire severity zone and so that's important as we discuss why we're asking for the public road access into this subdivision. So a lot of history has occurred on this project. This project was approved as a master plan with a certified EIR. It required an annexation, a general plan amendment, rezoning and initially approved two subdivisions, Westridge two and three, in 2009 and then subsequently Westridge one in 2019. So west ridge one starting from the west and going east, ending with West Ridge four on Westridge four, we do not have a subdivision, so the development agreement only covers Westridge one, two, and three areas. The annexation initially required the annexation of the westerly portion as it was in the county at the time, since Westridge run was proposed as part of the project, the annexation was presented and approved in the end of the day. When this was annexed in 2018, the bottom section was removed and only the two third northerly portion was annexed into the city. Also, there was a general plan amendment that removed a connection on our proposed roads. It would have connected the Kenyon Creek road straight through some floodplain and up to placer. And what we did was removed it because the project actuall