Jun 16, 2026 6:00 PM - Redding City Council - Regular Meeting

>>Okay, we are coming out of closed session, and out of closed session we have no reportable action out of closed session, so we're going to close that meeting and, uh, we're going to open our next meeting. I will say, 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 enter your name in the electronic kiosk located in the lobby. The City Council will allocate up to a maximum of 3 minutes per speaker for each agenda item. Staff reports are available online and also at the city's website and also in the public view binder located in the podium at the north side of the chambers. We're going to call this meeting to order. We're going to start with our Pledge of Allegiance, and then after that will be our invocation by Mr. Singh from the ski center. So All >> right, ready? >>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. >> Thank you so much. Thoughts of inspiration from the Sikh religion. Let's all close our eyes, or one feels comfortable to connect with the Almighty Lord when we all talk about our communities. O great Master of the Universe, loving God, you have spread your powers in all 4 directions. You are our Lord and Master, and to you I offer this prayer. This body and soul all belongs to you. It's all your property. O great Lord and Master, you are our mother and father, and we are your children. In Your grace there are so many joys. No one knows Your limits. You are beyond limits. O highest of the high God, most generous Lord, the whole human creation is strung on Your thread. That which has come from You under Your command, You alone know state and extent. Your name brings prosperity and welfare of all mankind and provides spiritual energy. Remembering your name balances all five elements and synchronizes body, mind, and soul. Oh great Lord and Master, you offer I offer this invocation to shower the glance of your grace on our elected officials and guide through to make fair and equitable decisions for our citizens. May I offer this prayer, members of the public. Law enforcement agencies, firefighters, medical teams, public health departments who carry a great burden on our behalf, may all be blessed. Under your name, I recognize the whole human race as one. Amen. >> Amen. >> Okay, we're going to start with roll call. >>[ ROLL CALL ] >> We have a very busy meeting. Welcome to City Council. I trust all of you guys have read the whole 1,500 pages of our council packet today coming here today. It's, uh, it's going to be a very eventful night. >> How fun. >> Uh, we do have a couple presentations as we start our meeting today. Uh, so we have a presentation by Danny from, uh, Visit Redding's Tourism Marketing Director, and he's going to be providing a semiannual report regarding the tourism marketing and promotional efforts, uh, for the City of Redding. So where are you, Danny? There you are. All right. >> Sorry. >> Awesome. >> Um, good evening, Mayor and council members. I wanted to thank you guys for the opportunity to come up here and present today. Um, on the last, uh, 3 quarters sorry, I have my notes here just to make sure. Um, before I get into the nuts and bolts of the presentation, I wanted to briefly highlight an important step in the future of our local tourism industry. For the past 2 years, RTMG, also known as the Redding Tourism and Marketing Group, has supported Visit Redding's leisure tourism efforts through the funding of leisure marketing campaigns. We're now taking that partnership even further by aligning our work under one single public-facing tourism brand, Visit Redding. To share a little bit more about what that looks like in practice, I'd like to invite Jennifer Johnston, CEO of Redding Tourism Marketing Group, to say a few words. Sorry, I got so happy I forgot to go to the next slide. Or so nervous, one or the other. I don't know why you guys make me nervous, but I'm a little shorter. Hello everyone. Um, like he said, I'm Jennifer Johnston from the Redding Tourism Marketing Group, and I'd like to update you on some exciting, um, changes that we've made recently. Just in April, our Redding Tourism Marketing Group board approved a new strategy to further align our tourism efforts here locally behind the excellent destination marketing work that Visit Redding and the Chamber is already doing. We believe visitors, meeting planners, event organizers, and prospective residents are best served when they encounter one tourism brand, one website, one primary social media presence, rather than multiple organizations competing for attention. Our TMG will continue investing TBID funding into meetings, groups, events such as Ironman, bringing those to our city while also supporting and strengthening Visit Redding's leisure tourism marketing efforts. This approach allows both organizations to focus on strengths that we've had as far as groups and events for Redding Tourism Marketing Group and leisure marketing for Visit Redding. and to create a more coordinated, effective tourism strategy for Redding. Excuse me. I'm grateful for my board's support of this new strategy and excited to work more closely with the Redding Chamber. >> We've worked well in the past, especially after previous budget cuts. The goal is not to shift the responsibility, but to strengthen the system behind Visit Redding so that the city's investment has a greater impact, and we feel as if this will do so under the one brand. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Perfect. >> So today sorry. Today I'll be kind of covering a few different topics, but here's a little bit of a table of contents. You guys can read it. I can go through it if you'd like to, but I see the smiles. Smiles is all that I need. That's perfect. As you guys see here, this is our last 10-year for TOT. Overall, what you'll notice, and I'm kicking myself, I forgot to put it on there, but 2018 and 2019, that was a result of the Carr Fire. So you see that bump up in that year. And then you've been able to see that we're maintaining the growth that was sustained after COVID. And this next slide, you'll be able to see this is our projection for the year. We still haven't got the latest TOT numbers and with June being our last month in this fiscal year. But we're projected to increase over last year and the year prior as well. So a good year for tourism overall. Across the industry, we're seeing it is more towards that K-shaped economy where you're seeing a lot more visitors going after luxury travel and then a little bit less in the budget travel. For us, where we strive, of course, as you guys know, is the outdoor adventure. and just our authentic community to show a little bit about the partnership with Choose Redding sorry, Redding Tourism and Marketing Group and Visit Redding, as well as Cool April Nights. I wanted to show you guys the next video. And this one will be released for a commercial coming up with Cool April Nights, but I can kind of show you guys a little bit of the work that we've been doing. [ VIDEO PLAYING ] >> Awesome. >> For that piece, overall, we try to focus our energy on individuals and how those individuals relate to the car and that car culture overall. So how can we kind of build on that spirit? I don't know if you guys have felt the energy lately, but I've definitely felt it just around our city with the rodeo and with Cool April Nights. I feel like these past few years, it's been changing a little bit to just people looking into those authentic selves. So with some of the people that we chose for that, we wanted to be mindful to invite more people people in. And so that's why we had people, whether it was their first year or 10 years or been coming since the very beginning, and excited to see that grow and also multiple events growing in the future. To talk a little bit more about growth, from our hotel data, we've been able to see what we call is demand, but it's also room to book rooms booked. So we saw an increase in rooms booked by 3% that contributed to the revenue increase of 4.7%. And this is from July 1st all the way to April 30th. We did see an increase in supply, which is great that we're able to hold that supply and demand and that increased occupancy as well. The revenue generated so far from the hotels was $63 million. On this next slide, you'll see the short-term rentals data. So the revenue there is the $8.3 million. So it's a lot less. So we're seeing a little bit of decrease in, or even maintaining flat in some of the short-term rental data. We're noticing people are starting to shift back to hotels how we saw before COVID So some people want that experience and others want to be in the hotel where it's a clean bed and you have a spa and those things overall. So we're seeing a little bit of shift, but we're just monitoring that market. From the visitor spending standpoint, we noticed an increase in card spend by 1.4%, 3.7% more transactions overall. And then as you guys see, maintaining flat with the average spend per cardholder and then the average spend overall. Our website traffic, our website is kind of our baby. Overall, it's where we send everyone back to from an ad or social media or for them to find out more information outside of different publications or from social media. Overall, you'll see right around 500,000 views with 388 key events and the typical user using right around 2 pages. We see a lot on our community events calendar, so that's why you'll see Redding up on the top looking for that information. You'll also see top markets with Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Jose, San Francisco, and then this was more of an anomaly, that's why I put the top 6 on there. It just means that the location data is not on, so we can't track exactly where that individual came from. But there is a heavy amount of users on that category. Overall, our community calendar is something that we take a lot of pride in. We just transferred it over to a new system. So on here, you'll see February 1st. That was when that new system switched over. It's an app. It's called Cruncho. They've done things with the Olympics and other large credible events. In the future, we can even sell tickets if that's an option for us. But what we're utilizing it for now is mostly showing online events. The things that jump out to me on here are the organizers. There's over 111 organizers just starting to submit their events. So there's a lot of traction. Those organizers are anywhere from Waterworks Park, Cascade Theater, Viva Downtown, Cool April Nights, Redding Rodeo, Asphalt Cowboys. The list goes on. on all the different contributors to our event calendar, and we just love being that local source for people. Overall, our marketing mix, we haven't changed. We have an organic side and then a paid side. So organic is going to be those things that we're not paying for, such as the blogs, the newsletters, and print brochures. Like, we're paying to acquire that consumer, whereas paid, we continue to do our funnel approach. So you can kind of think about a funnel. funnel or a pizza, a slice of pizza. So like that crust is going to be the top of the funnel, whereas that top of the funnel marketing is going to go into more of Meta or YouTube, things of that nature, whereas the very bottom would be more TripAdvisor, those who are in the niche markets. We've continued to utilize partnerships with Visit California, utilizing their newsletter with over 60,000 subscribers, and then also partnerships with Visit California on co-ops to make the money stretch even further. where you see some of the visual creatives that we work through them through TripAdvisor on that right side. What's great about TripAdvisor as a whole is you're going after that consumer at the right time in their visitor journey. So we understand, hey, they want to book a trip, maybe they don't know where they want to go yet, but overall we had a $31,000 investment which contributed to about a third of a million back in visitor spending, and then about $11 return on ad spend, which is great for us. You'll kind of see throughout, there was the impression piece, and then it actually goes down to how many visits were here. So from that campaign, which is great, it shows the A to Z. So there's over 1,100 trips and 1,600 total room nights booked from that. Not every platform is going to give you that accessibility, but that's what's great with TripAdvisor is they're able to see that cell phone that saw the ad and then watching them come into destination. We're still getting data because it's 90 days after post-campaign. We've also had multiple influencer partnerships. On the very far left one was a creator out of Chico. He did an FPV flight for Cool April Nights, and that viewership is over 1 million views with over 100,000 likes. So it went off from a viral perspective. Also done things with Outdoor Wise Living, where you can kind of see on the stats on the very bottom, as well as Vine and Vineyards. So we're hitting different target audiences and different individuals' tastes. Here's a brief snapshot of some of the larger publications that we've been able to land in this last year. Freehub is a magazine that's highly focused on mountain bikers, which was great. They utilized our photo and our quote. Sunset Magazine, as you guys have heard of, USA Today, and then also the travel. Things that are coming up next, really excited, especially with that partnership with RTMG. We've been able to help create marketing assets for Ironman coming up in August. So we're able to, on the right side, show a little teaser about some of the welcome video coming up this August, as well as some advertising for this year, as well as next year and years to come. And then here was just a quick small Small snapshot, excuse me, snapshot of what's expected. Currently right now it seems like we're right around the 1,500 athlete mark, so that's great to hear, and we still have time before the big event. So really excited to partner, and I've got the privilege to check out other Ironmans around, so getting firsthand marketing insight to make sure it's successful here as well has been really cool to visit with the team. That is what I have for my presentation today, but more than happy to answer any questions you guys may have for me. >> Are there any questions for Danny? >> Oh, thank you. >> No problem. >> Thank you, Danny. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Thank you, Danny. >> Okay. >> All right, our next presentation is by John Truitt from Viva Downtown, uh, Redding Executive Director, regarding the unique overlap of the officially designated Main Street District, California Cultural District, and the City of Redding Entertainment Zone. Hi, John. >> Good evening. Thanks for having me. I'm John Truitt, Executive Director from Viva Downtown, and I'm here to talk about 3 districts that we have going on in our downtown that are creating some amazing opportunities. We've been accredited again for the 12th year in a row as an official designated Main Street organization. We also have a designation from the California Arts Council as a designated cultural district, And the city has put in an entertainment zone, which I understand you'll hear a little bit more about tonight. My graphics are not nearly as fascinating or interesting as Danny's are, but they do the job. That's downtown Redding right there. You can see the railroad tracks going on a little bit of a curve. We occupy about 16 blocks. Like I said, we're a Main Street America designated district, a California cultural district, and a downtown Redding entertainment zone. >> So what exactly does that mean? Yes. >> Well, an accredited Main Street organization is a nationally recognized economic and community development model that helps strengthen downtowns through coordinated work in 4 areas. Those areas are economic vitality, so we do things that support businesses, investment, and district growth. We concentrate on design, improving spaces and district appearance. We also concentrate on promotion, building activity, identity, and visitation. And importantly, we also concentrate on organization. That is the work that's not so obvious, that doesn't look really great in pictures, but it's coordinating partners, volunteers, and projects, holding a lot of meetings, talking with a lot of people, being on the phone, answering a lot of emails. That's important work, as I'm sure all y'all know. Viva Downtown serves as the coordinating organization that helps align partners, projects, and investment within the district. Now, California Cultural District, that's a little bit of a different engine, okay? This is a state designation from the California Arts Council that recognizes communities that have significant cultural assets and creative activities. We were one of the 14 original districts designated across the state about 6 years ago. The whole idea is to strengthen arts and creative economy, support tourism and place identity, and to encourage partner partnership and investment. Redding's Cultural District positions our downtown as a regional creative center, and if you've been downtown over the past couple of years, you've probably noticed that there's just more and more and more arts and culture groups and activities happening in downtown Redding. It's not by accident. It's because we have this designation. Now the Entertainment Zone, I'm going to let the folks from the city explain that a little bit more to you later tonight, but the Entertainment Zone is a city policy tool designed to support walkability, hospitality, and business activity. So we encourage people to explore on foot. We encourage them to support restaurants and venues, and also the idea of the Entertainment Zone is with the walkability and being able to go inside and outside, it extends the customer activity downtown. So the entertainment zone was designed to support a more active, walkable, and economically connected downtown experience. So what each district contributes is Main Street, that's the coordination and implementation. And I want to thank Council Member Resner and Mayor Littau. You've been good representatives to the district. You've gone to downtown business groups, you've been at our downtown collaboratives. Thank you, Aaron, for attending our recognition, which was held just a little while So thanks for showing up and appreciating the people that do great things in downtown. Our cultural district, that's about identity and creative economy. And our entertainment zone, it's all about activation and hospitality economy. So why does the combination matter? Together, these frameworks create the conditions that support investment activity and visitation along with community life. So each designation is a different tool. The 3 districts actually reinforce one another. There's shared partnerships and improved efficiency. There's public and private investment that can become more effective. And so this combination makes Downtown Redding one of California's more strategically positioned downtown districts for coordinated cultural, civic, and economic development. And I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I'm pretty sure, pretty sure, like 99.9% sure, that Downtown Redding is the only place that has all 3 designations, has a Main Street designation, and a California Cultural District and an Entertainment Zone. So this represents some great opportunities for us. So what does this look like in practice? Well, what it looks like is First Fridays. If you've had a chance to come to the past First Fridays, you can see there's just an amazing amount of activity that's going on during First Fridays in downtown Redding. Cultural District programs, like I said, arts and culture is thriving. Entertainment Zone activation, I've seen a lot of people enjoying the entertainment zone. Some of our coordination examples, like I said, with that organizing, it's very important. We have our Downtown Collaborative. That's all about placemaking and multiple uses. We've got our Downtown Business Group, which is about business and city collaboration. I want to thank you folks that work with the city attending downtown business groups, talking to people, making sure that everybody knows what's going on. The whole idea of all these different districts and all these meetings is to reduce friction, and it's doing a good job. We've got partner and community groups initiative. We've got Juneteenth and Pride coming up this weekend and work plan integration. So the districts provide structure while remaining adaptable to future opportunities. So we've got our Main Street, we got our cultural district, and we've got our downtown entertainment zone. And these districts are they're not really 3 versions of the same thing. They're solving different problems. Main Street organizes and supports implementation. It gets people together, it gets people talking. The cultural district creates identity and a creative economy, and the entertainment zone supports activity and hospitality. So what are the opportunities ahead? We want to strengthen coordination with all the different groups and also new groups and interested parties that are moving into downtown. We want to build on existing investment. Some great public investment has happened in downtown Redding, as you know. We've got great sidewalk streets, we've got a new park, we've got a stage, we've got all kinds of great things that we're using. We want to expand cultural activity. We want to encourage walkability and hospitality, and we want to continue improving our downtown experience. And if you're interested, I know that you showed 1,500 pages of reading, but if you'd like to see our Main Street work plan, you can go onto our website, vivadowntownreading.org, and take a look at what we've got planned for 2026. It's a pretty good work plan, and one of the people that put together the work plan, Blake Fisher, is our Main Street coordinator over there. Did you know that Blake is also the state president of the California Main Street Association. So we've got kind of a big deal in the room right now. I want to thank our 2026 partners. We work with a lot of different organizations, and a lot of different organizations are coming together to make a great downtown. So we want to thank all of those. Each group brings a great set of talents and a great set of individuals that really are making our downtown a fantastic place. Any questions? >> You did such a good job explaining things, maybe we don't have any questions. >> You did a good job. Well, thank you. >> I don't, I don't have a question. I just have a comment. I think as someone who grew up here, I've seen a lot of iterations of downtown, and I think that some people think that that's an overnight sort of success. And it really has taken decades worth of collaboration. And a plan only works if you work the plan. And I just want to say thank you so much for continuing to just carry that torch because I think that it's really paying off. And I think that young people and families and businesses are really excited about just the synergy that's happening in downtown. So thank you for your efforts. >> That's the whole idea. Thank you. >> Thank you, John. >> I do want to acknowledge Blake Fisher. One time I saw them in the park party was over late evening, he was still cleaning up the place, and I was very impressed with that. >> Wow, that's great. >> Because that's rare, you know. >> That's a real president. >> Thank you, John. Thank you very much. >> Okay. >> All right, that was a lot of fun, very informative. We'll move on to public comment. It's for non-agendized matters within the city's jurisdiction. Pursuant to the Brown Act, City Council cannot take action on public comment items. The City Council will allocate up to a maximum of 3 minutes per speaker for 30 minutes total at the beginning of the meeting for public comment for non-agendized matters within the city's jurisdiction. The mayor will determine the order of the speakers. If 30 minutes is not adequate to accommodate all of the individuals who have submitted their name through the electronic kiosk, the council will trail this item to the end of the open session agenda. The remaining speakers will address the City Council at that time. Thank you, Mayor. We do have more speakers than time would allow today, so if you don't hear your name called today, we'll invite you to stay to the end of the meeting and make sure your comments are heard. So we're going to start with David. Are you out there, David? There you are. And then after David, we'll go to Caroline. And if you hear your name, you can line up on the side of the wall just so we keep things moving. And then after Caroline, we'll have Judy. >> Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Thank you for having me. David Mung, Local Government Affairs for PG&E, and I just wanted to stop by today to tell you about something that my team, Local Government Affairs, has been working on. It's a new coalition, the Wildfire Victims First Coalition. It is what it sounds like, to help wildfire victims first. So it kind of stands on 3 main pillars, main priorities. The first one is To prevent wildfires and protect people from wildfires. What that looks like would be better coordination throughout the state, requirements for land management and land mitigation, holding utilities responsible for their part. PG&E has made a lot of changes in the last few years in vegetation management, undergrounding, a lot of new technologies to make our infrastructure safer. We exceed those requirements. That is not the same across the whole state. So making clear requirements for utilities in what protection looks like, and then clearer incentives for landowners as well for maintaining their private property. So that would be the first pillar. Second one is one that we're no stranger to up here in Northern California, but improvements to our insurance system, making sure that insurance is available and affordable for all people. We've been relying on the FAIR Plan for too long, so we want to see steps toward making a plan to improve insurance availability and affordability. And then the third pillar for the coalition is making sure that wildfire victims are paid first, paid fast, and paid fairly. So putting protections around those claims, making the claim system simpler, but also making sure that third parties and lawyers can't come in and take their piece of the pie before victims get the funds that they need. So those are the 3 main pillars that it stands on right now. >> The website is up. >> It's wildfirevictimsfirst.com. We appreciate all and any support that we can get. You can see a list on there of the organizations and government officials who have joined so far, and we would very much appreciate any support from you all as well. There's a join link on there to add your name to the list. It is not language yet per se for any legislation, but this is the first step in making sure that these pillars are addressed in legislation coming up in this session for this summer. So again, I'm your representative, so always available to meet, answer any questions. Feel free to call or reach out. Thank you. But, uh, if you want to know anything more about it, thank you so much for your time. >> Okay, thank you, David. All right, Caroline, if you're out there. There you are. And then Judy, if you're here, if you could line up so we keep the >> Hi, >> thank you so much for hearing our public comments today. I really appreciate it. My name is Caroline Hickson, and I'm here to speak on the lease agreement between the city and the county at 7251 East >> Eastside Road. >> I personally do not live in that neighborhood. However, my husband grew up in that neighborhood, and now 4 generations of his family have lived there and still live there. His grandfather built one of the first houses in that neighborhood. So to hear that there is this lease agreement and the projects that are proposed on this land are very concerning. When I think about the projects that are being proposed there, I think back to my childhood. I'm not from here. I'm from Concord, California. way down south where our city manager worked. Hello. And I think about the childhood I have and that I don't wish that on another child because I grew up in a neighborhood that had rehabilitation programs in the neighborhood. I didn't play on the street. I didn't know my neighbor excuse me. I didn't know the neighborhood kids. I watched every passing car and every person because I didn't know who they were or why they were there. People are looking around. I'm sorry. If I may, Mayor, members of the council, just a point of clarification for others in the audience who might be wanting to speak to this item as well. This is on your consent calendar for consideration tonight. It's not a non-agendized item, but I'd leave it to the council's discretion of when you want to receive this information. >> It would appear that she's just opposing the project as a whole, and that's not necessarily the grazing is on the agenda. So maybe she can is she allowed to just oppose it? >> Up to the council's discretion. >> I mean, she's we'll let you finish. You're just here for a public comment. >> Thank you so much, but I just noticed my time was going. I'll try to talk fast, but am I okay? >> You're okay. We'll let you go. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay, I'll try to hurry. >> Um, take your time. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> I didn't know the neighborhood because I didn't grow up playing on the street. I watched every car and person that passed by because the neighborhood wasn't safe. There was a halfway house around the corner. I grew up with an alarm system where I had to memorize the code at a very young age, and our alarm system was so elaborate that if somebody sliced a window screen, it went off. A window screen. That's how worried we were about safety. I do not wish that on the student excuse me, the children of this neighborhood. This project, I know it hasn't been officially announced on anyone's agenda items. It was for a minute and then it was redacted at the last second. But everyone knows what it is. It's being piecemealed through the various boards. It's been done in closed sessions, the lease agreement, and that hindered the public's knowledge of the full scope and the opportunity for public to speak on it because we didn't know everything that was going on until it was too late. So on the agenda tonight is the grazing, but I'm asking you to take it a step further, and many other people are, and revoke the entire lease It is not right. It is a well-established neighborhood. There are better places that are just being brushed over and nobody's explaining why. >> Nobody >> we're not using any other spot. Why this spot? Why next to this neighborhood? Why are you imposing this childhood that I had that was not safe on children of Redding? Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. >> Thank you, Carolyn. >> All right. >> If we hold the applause, it'll help us save time as we only have 30 minutes. But we'll let Judy go, and then Judy after Judy will be Sabrina and then Tyler. So, hi Judy. >> Hi, thank you. I wasn't sure how many Judys were here. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> I guess I'm the only one that signed up. Yeah, um, I live on well, my husband and I and our pets live on Rivercrest Drive In the River Ranch neighborhood. We're here for now, and the reason we came is because of the wonderful river and fly fishing. We're very, very supportive, interested, involved in fly fishing, and also the wonderful wildlife. >> So I'm >> Here to address the item 4.2A, um, the parcel for the jail complex. It's just really bad. It's bad because of the wildlife and environment. >> Are, are you here on item 4.2A? Yeah, you need to come down. Uh, we do have public comment just for anything non-agendized. Uh, if anybody is here speaking about a consent item, um, we prefer that Waits till the consent item and then you can use your public comment time for that. >> Okay, well then just ignore that last statement and let's carry on. I don't know the rules. >> No, I'm going to let you finish, but for anybody else out there, if you're here for consent >> I'm not finished. >> So I'm going to let you finish. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um, so this parcel for the jail complex is a really bad idea because of the wildlife and the environment. And also that we have a really established neighborhood of elderly people and kids, and it's not going to be safe if something is so close to the neighborhood. So my plea to the council would be a dramatic action of cancel the lease and just end this whole >> Thank you, Judy. All right, Sabrina. >> Hi. >> And Sabrina, I don't think you're here for consent item. You're here for FEM. >> Okay. Good evening, uh, Mayor, council members, staff, and community. Uh, thank you for allowing me a moment tonight to speak on a very full agenda. After nearly 10 years serving as your film commissioner, I wanted to personally share that I am leaving the position with FilmShasta under the Upstate California Film Commission umbrella at the end of this month. Since I accepted this position in 2016, together we have helped grow film production in our region, strengthened relationships with the entertainment industry, and showcased our community to audiences around the world. We've hosted 426 productions reporting over $18 million in local economic impact, returning $9 to $14 back to our community for every dollar that's been invested in the program. The support of our community members has helped create a reputation of professionalism, hospitality, and collaborative spirit for filmmakers. I want to express my sincere gratitude to each of you for believing in the value of this work. Economic development through film production is unique because it not only brings direct spending to our community but also showcases our region as a place where creativity, business, and community can thrive together. As I transition into a new role with the film liaisons in California statewide, helping promote California as a whole to the film industry, I remain incredibly passionate about the future of filming in our region, and I encourage the city to continue supporting film-friendly initiatives and the local film office efforts. I'm also excited to introduce Tyler Lockamy, who will be stepping into the role of film liaison for Shasta County. Tyler is an accomplished local filmmaker with firsthand production experience deep community connections, and a genuine passion for our region. I've worked closely with Tyler and have complete confidence in his ability to continue serving filmmakers and strengthening the film industry locally. Thank you again for your support and for the trust that you have placed in me over the years. It's been one of the greatest privileges of my professional life to serve this community, and I look forward to seeing all that comes next. >> All right, thank you, Sabrina. Thank you for all your contributions, Sabrina. We appreciate you. Tyler. >> Okay, good evening, uh, Mayor Littau, uh, Vice Mayor Dr. Dhanuka, and members of the City Council. My name is Tyler Lockamy, and I'm honored to stand before you as the new film liaison, uh, >> for FilmShasta. >> First, I'd like to acknowledge Sabrina Jurisich's work over the years, her dedication to building FilmShasta into a respected resource for filmmakers throughout California. She created a strong foundation, and I'm excited to continue that work. The transition has been smooth because promoting Shasta County through filmmaking is something I've already been doing for several years. as a filmmaker and producer. I've spent much of my career showcasing the incredible locations and opportunities that exist >> right here in our region. >> I also bring a unique perspective to this role because I've experienced FilmShasta from the filmmaker side of the table. As a producer, I helped bring The Dresden Sun, a feature film starring Christina Ricci, Steven Ogg, Mena Suvari, and Linus Roache, to Shasta County. That experience showed me firsthand how valuable a film commission can be and the economic impact film productions have on local communities. Productions support hotels, restaurants, local vendors, tradespeople, actors, and crew members. While film is often viewed as an art form, it's also an industry, one that creates jobs, attracts visitors, and brings outside dollars into our local economy. >> Communities that recognize filmmaking as a development tool, an economic development often see the greatest returns. My goal is to continue building relationships, supporting local filmmakers, attracting outside productions, and helping more people discover what Shasta County has to offer. We have incredible locations, talented people, and tremendous opportunity. I look forward to working with all of you And to continue growing filmmaking's impact in our community. >> Thank you for your time. >> All right. >> Welcome, Tyler. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> All right. I see 3 Dooleys. Are these the 3 boys in front? No? OK. So we'll go AJ Dooley, or >> Just go. >> All right, I'm AJ Dooley. Uh, I'm a father, I'm a veteran, I'm a resident of River Ranch neighborhood, and I'm a pastor at >> Shasta Reformed Church. >> Mostly motivated to speak here by the jail, but just some items in general. Romans 13 says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinances of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same, for he is God's minister to you for good. I believe in submission to authority, those in authority just like yourself, because God tells me to and because it's him who has placed you in that seat. But that is under the understanding that you protect me, my loved ones, and all law-abiding citizens in your jurisdiction by bringing fear upon the evildoer. It is to that end that the authorities of our nation have failed. This cowardly unwillingness to call evil out To punish it as such, all for the sake of sinful empathy and monetary profit, has led to an increase in crime and the need for facilities such as this jail, where criminals are being welcomed in to set up shop next to homeschooling mothers and children's play places. Further, I've spent time in the Middle East. I've seen firsthand how this same cowardice not only encourages the weak and the evil to behave the way they do, to rob, to cheat, to steal, to parade sexual degeneracy in the streets, but also invites those who wish to end the American way of life, those whom I fought overseas, to waltz in and carry out their evil agenda right here in our homeland. If you think what you see happening in New York, Los Angeles, and other metropolises across the country is not coming to Redding, just continue to bend the knee and bow for pagan gods and glorify what the God of the Bible calls evil rather than bend the knee to Yahweh himself. I'll leave you with God's response to the nations who plot against him. Psalm 2. Now therefore be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. >> That's all I have. >> All right, thank you. Uh, Kim, are you here? >> Kim Moore? Or >> yep. >> Good evening, council members, city employees. And, and I'd like to apologize to the community because this was something I wanted to bring up at the Housing Authority meeting to get it on the record. And when I arrived this evening, I learned that the Housing Authority meeting had been canceled. On the other hand, I thank God that there's so many important people in this room right now because I'm banking on the Holy Spirit It needs to be on the record that Northern Valley Catholic Social Services is still failing at the Woodlands. They fail to handle the contracts properly, to abide by what's written in our leases. My biggest concern right now isn't just mold remediation that was completed by our on-site maintenance person via versus using a professional to do it properly. I appreciate that our maintenance. man was willing to go in there and do that job. At the same time, I don't think that he should have been subjected to it. There's Woodlands Phase 1 and Woodlands Phase 2, and in the government funding contracts, they said stated that they were going to have onsite management 24/7, 7 days a week. We haven't had a manager in Woodlands 2 for over a year. So all of the management responsibilities for both Phase 1 and Phase 2 74 units are placed on the new manager of Phase 1, and our tenants love her. This is the first manager well, the kind of second, but, but really the first one who's really shown us and earned our trust about how much she really cares about the community and what her actions bring into our community. And I want to get it on the record that I believe that she's intentionally being sabotaged and that they're setting her up for failure. Thank you. And that they're going to fire her. I believe that with my full heart, and that's why I want that on the record. But more importantly is that in the B4 section of Woodlands One, there is a massive cockroach infestation. It is it's worse than the movie Joe's Apartment. And for whatever reason, as I've stated on the record before, that because it's Northern Valley Catholic Social Services, they get a free pass from HUD. When I went to HUD about the issues with the severe mold. It was shaken away. When we've got a three-bedroom apartment that has six children and three big dogs that are being handled by children, and these dogs are pooping all over in the landscape, and then someone like me who's cleaning up that landscape asks them to go follow the rules and go across the street and use dog bags. Now I'm being intimidated, and this is a person who has a felony conviction and beat a murder charge, and I'm not the only senior woman he's. He's told me I need to move and go to a senior home. He doesn't understand the Mental Health Services Act money that it took to build The Woodlands and why it is mixed low income and mental health. Please, we need help. We need a team of people to sit down with pivotal tenants and discuss it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Kim. Mark Monroe and David Ledger. >> Hello, everyone. My name is Mark Monroe. I'm the president of Shasta Supermoto, and we were blessed by the board and the city management to receive our key back to our track, and we are elated to be there. We are doing our best to reach out to community, which we're doing, and we're getting a lot of response. We are at this time faced with a little bit of a challenge. We are trying to get back and forth from our track, which is at the end of the drag strip, and it's about a mile long from our track to the gate, and there is no more clear path from one direction to the other. We used to have a fence on this side, a fence on this side, and you just drove straight back. Um, we're not sure what we're going to do or how to work it out. I've been talking with the city manager or the airport managers. We think we got a plan, but I, I just getting some pushback really hard from the present tenant out there, and I don't know what to do. So >> I'm here to ask. >> We do have vehicles that are 43 feet long pulling an 18-foot trailer, makes it 65 feet, and they want us to do a gigantic horseshoe thing around what used to just go straight >> through. >> And we got locked in. I had 8 members get locked in behind >> the gate and could >> not get out until someone >> came in. >> to unlock it with the key. We used to have a combination lock and we would share that with our members and everyone could get in and out. But that also brings up safety. We can't have a locked gate if there's an emergency out there. The ambulance or medics or whoever need to get to us. If we have a locked gate, it's unfortunate, but they would have to either cut the lock or stand out there until someone was coherent enough to go get them and open it up for them. Again, it's a mile there and a mile back. We need your guys' guidance on how you want to handle that, but everything else, we're happy. I just want to say thank you and all of your guys' attention on that, getting us back out there. And if you guys get bored, anybody come on out and watch us. Thank you. >> Thanks, Mark. We look forward to going out there and watching you and riding with you too. So, David, are you here? David? And David, are for consent or are you here for public comment? You're here for public comment or consent? Public. Okay. Yeah, I know he does. >> Yeah, we got >> time. Yeah, I think everybody's going to get >> in. So, um, good evening, uh, council members. I appreciate >> the opportunity >> to talk to you tonight. I want to commend, >> um, >> Erin Resner for being elected, being elected for the Board of Supervisors, or actually congratulate her. I think it's a really positive move for the county. And also, I don't come to these meetings often, but I always learn something good. And I know a lot about Viva Downtown Redding and what they're doing. They've got some great hardworking people on their, on their committees. But why I'm here today, I'm not talking about the the grazing permit that you have on there, just kind of how the whole process was handled as far as the leasing the land to the county. >> Apparently, >> there wasn't much notice about it. I never heard about it till afterwards. And, and so, and then when there was a meeting for the Planning Commission, and they were supposed to approve or not approve whether, you know, they should recommend to you whether you should approve this. >> There was a public >> minutes that came not minutes, but agenda that came out. And then just before the meeting, they changed it, and it was a they were to approve or recommend that you approve of leasing the land to the county. for a jail, and that specifically had to be a jail. And then >> when we come to >> the meeting and so that's like skipping over CEQA issues when you come to the meeting, before the meeting, in red they've canceled out that it's going to be a project, and they've put up there that they're just going to lease the city is going to lease this property to the county for kind of basically unknown reasons. And so that's evading CEQA. You're changing the first lease agreement that was done in September. So I'm just was kind of surprised to see that because I've never seen that at a city meeting where the basic thing they're going to talk about is whether they should the city should go through with this lease of land and then eventual sale. And it seems to be piecemealing the project and evading CEQA. Thank you. But, um, that's, that's all I have to say on that. Thank you. >> All right, thank you, David. Uh, Matt Montgomery, you're here. After Matt, uh, Nick Gardner, if you're here. So if you can head your way. >> I'm gonna apologize in advance. Public speaking is not something I do often, but I was asked to do this on behalf of my community. Good evening, council members and mayor. My name is Matt Goring, and I live in the neighborhood south of Benton Airpark and Mercy Medical Center. Last Friday, my family was evacuated during the Linden Fire. Sorry. My family was evacuated during the Linden Fire. We saw smoke before we Got the watch duty alert, and even with the head start, the fire was close enough we only had a few minutes to gather what we could and leave. As ash fell in our yard and emergency personnel directed us to evacuate, I was convinced that our home was gone. The fire burned in the greenbelt behind our neighborhood and came dangerously close to the houses. After the fire, I walked through and found that the burn scar was 3 houses down from my house. That's pretty, pretty close. My wife wanted to be here with me tonight, but after watching how fast the fire moved, she no longer feels comfortable leaving our teenage sons home by themselves. First of all, I want to thank the Redding Fire Department, CAL FIRE, and all responding agencies. Our whole neighborhood is deeply grateful for every firefighter and first responder who stood between that fire and our homes. Because of their effort their efforts, our neighborhood is still standing today. Many of us remember the Carr Fire. We watched it come off the mountains and we could see it. We had time to make decisions about what we were seeing. This wasn't like this. This wasn't like that. This was in our backyard. The Lyndon Fire happened less than a mile as the crow flies from where we are tonight. On one side of the greenbelt are neighborhoods like mine, and on the other side is Benton Air Park. >> Mercy >> Medical Center, and healthcare facilities that serve our community. I have no interest in blame or speculation of the cause. I'm actually just here to ask what comes next on behalf of my community. Who's, who's responsible for managing vegetation and fuel loads in those greenbelt areas adjacent to the neighborhoods? What plans do we have in place to reduce the risk of wildfires in those highly congested areas and And how can residents work alongside the city and other agencies to help make our community safer? 'Cause I feel like we were fortunate this time, the firefighters gave us that chance. I just hope that we can use this time that we have to prevent potential future incidents. Thank you for your time and thank you for your service to our community. >> All right, thank you. Nick, you're up. >> Mr. Thibault and Webb, I'd like you to pay attention to this. Probably 70 or 80 years ago, there was a ditch built called the Henderson Ditch. It starts about 100 yards west of Bocelli Lane and runs straight to the river. It drains probably 12 14,000 acres we'll call the Bocelli Basin. At the time that it was built, there was very little development along that. And over the years, it's built up to where there's probably less than 20% that isn't developed. And that's because it's on a hillside and it can't be developed. >> The city, >> 100% of the water drains, it drains into that ditch, is city water. And the ditch is overloaded. It's been overloaded for 20 or 30 years. This last big storm we had, when we had all the flooding in Redding, it flooded out 12, 14 houses out of a small subdivision that's probably 20, 5 houses. And it was negligence on the city because for years we have been trying to get them to shore up, to clean out, and make a big bigger culvert area for this water to flow through, and they haven't done it. So now you've got the Hillside Plaza going in. That's about the 400 block of Hartnell. Yes. And across the street, there's another small development going in, and all the runoff water from that is going to drain into this ditch. This ditch is overgrown, it's a fire hazard, and there's a homeless camp in it right now. Periodically, I mean every 2 or 3 weeks, there are more homeless that move into it, and the police do a wonderful job of moving them on, but you just can't control it 100% of the time. Thank you. the time. When you approve something like the Hillside Plaza, it seems like you're being derelict in your duties if you don't at least clean out that ditch. It's overgrown, it looks like a jungle. And I just wanted to bring this to your attention because it's a liability to the city now, as far as I'm concerned. I understand there's a lawsuit coming from the people that got flooded. It was absolutely unnecessary, and it's been going on. The city's been aware of it for years. In fact, when Christian Schrader and Julie Winter were here, they neglected to clean it out, and they ruined my driveway by letting it get flooded. I had to threaten to bring in, uh, environmental services, the, uh, California Water Control, before they'd finally insist Redding do its job. So I hope you people look into this, and you're welcome to call me. I'll walk you through it and show it to >> you. Nick, thank you. Thank >> You're >> welcome. Thank you, Mayor Littau. >> Councilmember Reznor. >> I was just going to say, I call this Nick's ditch. Nick, you brought this up years ago, right? You brought this up years and years ago, and you said it was an issue for a very long time. And then I thought that eventually that the city came and said >> it was >> our issue and they cleaned it out. Did that not occur? I thought that came you came and said thank you for that. >> Excuse me. The thing is, the county and city line feathers back and forth in it, and the city cleaned out their part, but they don't want to clean out the county's part. But the thing is, it's 100% city water, so why should the county clean out a problem that's created by the city? >> Well, I'll talk to Public Works about it 'cause he's new here since that issue. >> Well, it needs to be addressed because there was major damage done this last storm, and this storm isn't unusual. We have a storm like that every 3 or 4 years. >> Thanks for bringing it up. >> Thanks, Nick. >> All right, we're outta time on public comment. If you didn't hear your name, you're welcome to stay to the end and we'll call you up here. We're gonna move to consent calendar. The 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 enter your name in the electronic kiosk located in the lobby before the consent calendar is considered. It shall be the prerogative of any council member before the consent calendar is acted upon to: 1, comment on an item; 2, respond to any public comment on an item; 3, request the record reflect an abstention or nay vote on an item; or 4, remove an item and place it on the regular portion of the agenda for the delivery of a staff report, or an extended discussion or deliberation. We have numerous speakers today on consent. I'm going to call your name. If we can try to line up along the wall so that way we can keep moving things along. We have Kathy Millhouse. After Kathy, Lewis, if you can make your way up there. >> Forrest. Seth. >> Looks like Iver, Kristen that's Kristen Schrader Christine Bagley, Michael Richard, Mike Michalik, and Kim Malsin. If you could all remember your order exactly like that. I mean, I do have 2 here without any names, so if you did not hear your name and you were planning on speaking on consent, you may want to go fix your card out there or I'm sorry, I didn't hear my name. or add your name. All I see is 4.82, it's blank, and then I have another one that's blank with nothing on that. So if you really plan to speak, you're going to >> want to go >> fix that. Kathy, we'll start with you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, good evening, my name is Kathy Milhouse and I'm a resident of the River Ranch community. I am here tonight to speak on the inappropriate leasing of the parcel adjacent to our community with the purpose of building a 1,200-bed jail and other facilities with absolutely no regard for our community and no or very little notice or ability to speak or object. If you cannot understand an objection, please picture this. When you purchase your home, A parcel next to your home was in its natural state, wetland, homed birds, frogs, and other wonderful creatures, plant life, and natural beauty, only to find out after it had been leased that the land would be used to build a 1,200-bed jail. If you cannot understand The inappropriateness and negative impact this would have on our community. I invite you to join me on a short walk with my dog to the end of our street and back. Please do not allow this. I am requesting that lease be canceled and the county find an appropriate parcel for this project. Thank you. >> Mary, did you want to speak at all, or on the consent, as far as just with our speakers here? >> Sure. >> Being relevant to the consent agenda items. >> Mayor Littau, members of the City Council, the item on your consent calendar this evening related to the lease with the county is rescission of the grazing amendment. The lease itself is not on the agenda, so up to the council's discretion on accepting comments that are outside of that. I would tell you that those are more comments that are not on the agenda as to the previous speakers that spoke during Items not on the agenda. So if speakers wish to speak on that, perhaps they can speak at the end of the agenda. But again, leave it to the council's discretion. >> Okay. >> Yes. So just for clarification, what we're saying is on this consent item 4.2 is specific to the grazing itself, not the not the lease itself or the extension of the lease. But we're you should be here speaking about 4.2 on the grazing itself. So yes, yes. So, uh, if it's not that, of course we have speakers that we can go to the very end of the meeting and speak after that. So, all right, so let's just keep it going. So, uh, is this Louis? Is that right? Hi, Louis. >> Hi. >> Welcome. >> Yeah. Hello, my name is Louis McDade. I live in, I live in the River Ranch neighborhood, and I would like to share my thoughts on the jail being built down the street from my house. First, I would like to thank all the council members for taking the time to hear my thoughts. I know you all care deeply about the community and what is best for us. You have 4 children and your campaign is based on public safety. You're a respected doctor and a friend of my dad, Seth McGaha. You believe in transparency. You say that you will win for us. You have a record for fighting for justice. Now, please hear me out. I am homeschooled and spend a lot of time outside. If a jail is built, I would not be able to have as much freedom, and it would no longer be safe for me to do my regular projects that I enjoy so much. I have friends that live one house away that we spend a lot of time with, along with so many other things that I love with about my home. Please choose another site for this all-male correctional campus and protect my future at >> my childhood home. Thank you. >> Good job. Thank you for being here. >> Great job. That was very brave. >> That was awesome. Forrest, are you here? >> Hello, my name is Forrest McDade. I am 10 years old, and I would like to make it known that I do not want a jail built in my neighborhood. I love the place I live in, and I would like to live in it as long as possible. This is my childhood home, the place I walk to the river to fish, the place I bike in the evenings, and the place I get to be around nature watching birds and wildlife. If a jail is built here, I am afraid we will have to move to a new house because I would not feel safe with the jail just around the corner. Do you care about the safety of me and many other people living here? >> Yes. >> Would you like it if someone more powerful than you decided to build a jail like this near your home? I hope you think about these questions and choose not to place a jail in this location. >> Thank you. Very nice job. All right, Seth, right? Actually, yeah. There he goes. Oh, Seth, you could do it. >> All right, I think I can do this. All right, hello. Um, yeah, t