Aug 5, 2025 6:00 PM - Redding City Council - Regular Meeting

All of us probably are going to National Night out, so that's why we're a little bit more casually dressed tonight. Okay, so here we go. 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 at the city's website, cityofredding.gov in the public view binder located on the podium at the north side of the chambers. All right, should we do the pledge, Commissioner Letoff? 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. Stay standing and I'll give the invocation today. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this group of men and women here tonight. We thank you for the national Night out, and we ask for you to be with all of the city officials and people that are going out. And may we have a wonderful meeting tonight. Ask you to bless every family here tonight. And may I bless our city and our county in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. >> Amen. >> All right, Ms. Shar? >> [ ROLL CALL ] >> All right. Pursuant to the Brown Act, City council cannot take action on public comment items. 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 on. For non agendized matters within the city's jurisdiction, the mayor will determine the order of speakers. And 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. Time. Steve, where are you? Steve Kong, you're up. >> Good evening, council, staff and citizens that are here. I'm addressing Councilwoman Odette and her media interview. I think it was completely inappropriate. I mean, her. She is basing everything she said on. On unsubstantiated allegations and insinuations and you know, discrediting our employees, implying that wages were increased unjustifiably. She stated that she does not think we need new taxes, which is going to put us in a position of having our roads deteriorate, our parks, some of which she voted for without having a maintenance plan incorporated into it. Deteriorate. The Civic Auditorium will likely close along with Field of Dreams and many other things, not to mention jeopardizing our public with less public safety as far as our police department is concerned and the fire department. And all of this based on what she thinks might be the case or that she didn't feel like she got enough information put. Perhaps you will come up with it. You're supposed to come up with it Sunday, I believe. Where is it? And also you stated that you think that we need responsible and honest management and that we don't have that. You're demeaning our employees, stating that they got raised, implying that they had raises that were unjustified and undermining our entire city. I mean, I've got to call you Destroyer of Cities. That is going to be your name from now on in my mind. And as we go on with this, you create documentation. I'll be glad at every meeting to take time and go over each and one of your points with the reality of what's going on to show how incompetent you are. This is extremely irresponsible and I can't believe it's existing. From a council member. Thank you. >> Thanks, Steve. >> Mayor? Steve, I respect your opinions and you have been a very involved citizen for a long time, attending every meeting. I completely respect that. But I also must say that I respect Councilperson Odette and I have full faith in her integrity and her desire to see the best for the city. And there may be some differences of opinion, so I want to just convey my full confidence in your heart and your. In your mind as well. But this is how we. This is democracy. This is Republic. We debate these things in public square. And sometimes we may or may not agree with each other. But I have full confidence in you as well as in you, Steve. Thank you. >> Good evening, council members. My name is Tessa Borquez. I am with Alacrity Destination Services here this evening on behalf of the Upstate California Film Commission to share highlights from quarter one of 2025. So those reports were handed out to you, and this year was off to a very strong start. In the first quarter, we hosted four productions. Those included a feature film, a commercial, a short and an episodic series all bringing in an estimated 585,000 in local economic impact. With the 27 shoot days that supported local businesses, hotels, restaurants, and created opportunities for local crew and vendors, we also had 21 new project inquiries come into the film Office and currently 28 projects are in development. These are a sign of growing industry interest in our region. Representing Shasta, Tehama, Yuba and Sutter counties, the Film Commission continues to position our area as film friendly and production ready. Sabrina Jurassic, our film commissioner, was honored to speak in Sacramento as the immediate past president of Flicks, that's Film Liaisons in California statewide, where she shared with state leaders the significant value that film production brings to rural economies like our own. We also celebrated the return of the Sundial Film Festival, now under new leadership. Filmmakers from across the region attended, and they left feeling deeply inspired and appreciative of the warm welcome that they received in our community. In addition, the commission represented our region at the Sonoma International Film Festival for the fifth consecutive year, where we created valuable industry connections and promoted our stunning film locations. Marketing efforts continue to expand with regional websites for Film, Shasta, Film, Tehama, Film, Yuma, Sutter, and Upstate California collectively bringing in over 13,000 sessions this quarter. Social media channels generating over 15,000 views, and our newsletter now reaching more than 5,000 subscribers with very high open and click rates, showing strong engagement from filmmakers and industry professionals. We're also very proud to report that a locally supported film, the Golden Ghost, has gone on to receive international recognition, screening at best from New York to Berlin and winning awards that highlight stories of marginalized voices. In closing, this growing momentum would not be possible without your support. Every production here boosts our local economy, showcases our region, and strengthens our reputation within the film industry. So thank you for your ongoing support. >> Can you get this council a job as a cameo in one of the movies? >> Wow. >> All right. Consent calendar. The consent calendar contains items considered routine and or which have been individually scrutinized by the city. Oh, I didn't see it. You're not up here. Do you fill out? All right. Yep, no problem. Come on up, Nick. >> Don't miss a chance. >> You know, during my years working in the logging industry, I found out that you can't pay a cull more money and expect him to be a good man. You've just got an overpaid cull. And the city of Reading has turned into an overpaid cull. In my opinion. You've got eight people making over. This is 2023 making over $400,000. A year cost to the taxpayers. 68. Making over $300,000 a year. The quality of life has gone down in our community. Homelessness has increased. You know, Kristen Schrader, she was going to attack homeless when she got up here and she sure made a mess of things. Our streets are falling apart. Who decided that we're going to be a bicycle town? Who made that decision? I haven't talked to any citizens that are in favor of that. The Big League Dreams sports park falling apart is completely the city of Redding's fault. By not keeping Big League Dreams to the fire with their commitment to keep the park up, they just let it go downhill till there's nothing there. The city has made Hilltop and Turn Creek into a downward spiral. And it just is getting worse and worse and worse. And the cure all is more money. I don't see that. I see a lot of people getting raises and I don't see anything getting better. Benton Air park, they get money from FAA and Caltrans Transportation to keep up the Runway out there. The city doesn't do anything out there. And that money goes into the general fund. There's 110 hangers out there paying three to $400 a month rent. That's not going into the fund. There's no upkeep. There's lots of little things the city could do to make our community better. And I don't see it happening. And I'm going to fight this $0.01 tax tooth and nail. >> All right now on the 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 shall be the prerogative of any council member before the consent calendar is active on to comment on an item, respond to any public comment on an item, request the record reflecting an abstention or a nay vote on an item, remove an item and replace it on the regular portion of the agenda for delivery of a staff report and or an extended discussion or deliberation. >> I just had a question about 401A. I was just-- I thought we got an email about an update and I was wondering if you could tell the public sort of. I'm assuming that those are correlated. That there was. >> Yes. What you're referring to is, although we haven't received formal notification that the governor has declared an emergency for Shasta county. So that work that we're working on to repair the storm drain down at the boat ramp as well as Nurpon and other parks will receive some fashion of reimbursement, maybe up to 50%, we think. And then while I have the mic, I will say that everybody probably has noticed that the river is up, so they're doing big releases. We're not quite sure exactly why. We're trying to find out from the bureau what's going on there, but right now the water is too high to actually do the repairs at Nurpon. >> So we're--But we're one step closer that they are going to declare that. And if they do, it's 50%. >> We think they've declared it. It just hasn't worked its way down as far as paperwork and notifications. We're in contact with the sheriff who is our-- >> Who does our emergency response. So we will get notifications through them, likely. >> So for the public, it's. It is likely they'll cover 50% of the. >> Yeah, they have some ability to determine what that reimbursement rate is. Typically with OEs, it might be about 50%. >> And then it's not being fixed currently. Because the river surging. >> Yeah, the river's up. So parks and engineering have done a full assessment of the damages across all the park facilities. Facilities have fixes in mind, most of which can be done with city staff and purchase of materials. But we can't do that until the river goes back down. >> And so for the purposes of the public. When do we have an idea to estimate when we could actually do that? >> No, that's why we're trying to get a hold of the bureau to find out why they're putting the flows up so high so that we can anticipate when they'll come back down and then we can schedule the work after it dries out. >> Okay, thanks. >> Council member Resver? >> I was just going to make a motion to approve consent. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Alright, there we go. So that was unanimous. All right, moving. City clerk, you are up. >> Good evening, honorable mayor and council members. Before you today is a request to consider the adoption of two resolutions relative to. Number one, the certificate of sufficiency of initiative petition by the reading city clerk and calling for a special election to be held on and the second, calling for a special election to be held on Tuesday, November 4, 2025 for placement of the initiative measure entitled initiative measure for adoption of a 1% transaction and use tax for specified city services on the ballot and includes requesting the services of the Shasta County Register of Voters ROV and establishing policies and procedures in connection with a special election to honor full transparency. The writing City Clerk asked the ROV to complete a full count and the signatures turned and on July 24th the county ROV staff completed the review of all 9672 signatures and verified that 6496 were valid in the City of Reading. At the last Secretary of State's Report dated February of 2025, there were 58,164 registered voters within the city of Reading. 10%, which is 5,816 of valid signatures, are necessary to proceed pursuant to elections code section 9215. Therefore, there were more than 10% verified and valid. So the next step was to bring this item before you at the next regular meeting of the Council pursuant to elections code section 1405 that states that the legislative body must elect to call an election to be held not less than 88 days nor more than 100 three days after the order of the election and submit the initiative measure to the voters. Therefore, the recommendation before you tonight is to one Adopt resolution to accept the City Clerk's certificate of the sufficiency of the petition relating to the sufficiency of the number of qualified signatures on an initiative measure entitled as for adoption of a 1% transaction and use sales tax for specified city services and 2 adopt the resolution calling for a special election to be held on Tuesday, November 4, 2025 in the city of Redding to place the initiative measure on the ballot. This concludes my presentation. >> Thank you. We have one speaker. Mr. Collins. >> Hello again. I just wanted to emphasize the importance of the sales tax. If we just take the roads, which can't be messed with because the roads, the money that we spend on roads now is from a fuel tax and so that is what it must be spent on. And the 30% that would come out of this sales tax could put us in a position to significantly improve our roads, especially if we bonded it and implemented repairs immediately, which could be a real game changer as far as the streets of the City of Redding, I think that also applies to the fire department, that we may be able to do a bond with that if we have guaranteed revenues with the sales tax. Of course, we've also lost 12 law enforcement officers through attrition that we could increase and I think there was a significant difference in it when we were fully staffed as far as the streets and what was going on with low level crime and even high level crime with the percentages, because simply having that presence reduces all crime. So this sales tax initiative is so, so very important. And I could go on and on for an hour here, but I think you guys want to get out to the street. So I just can't say enough how important this sales tax measure is and how significant an impact it will have on the city positively. And if we don't have it negatively to where we will have to come up with a term of destroyer of cities. Thank you. >> I just had a question about the not having the option of the other date. Why isn't that, why wasn't that an option? >> And I'm sorry, I didn't quite follow. Which other date? >> November of 2026, the general election. >> So that, that is an option. That is an action that you would be able to take. >> Why isn't it on the staff report? >> It's possible that my memo was done after the staff report was submitted. >> So there's another option? >> Yes. >> Could you explain the other option? >> And if the council would like, I'd be happy to explain. Normally, when you receive a petition that is verified that has the requisite number of verified signatures within the jurisdiction, you basically have three choices. Under elections code 3215, the first choice is not on the table here. The first choice is to adopt the ordinance as written. You can't do that because this one involves tax, so it has to go to the voters. Your second choice is to send the matter to the voters. Your third choice is to order a report once you are then. So the report would delay things for up to 30 days, at which point you direct staff to come back and then you, you at that point then have to submit the matter to the voters. That the report is usually done for the purposes of, excuse me, of determining whether or not you would want to adopt it or to send the matter to the voters. It could also be used to decide how you want to impact your. Your election state. Under the, the elections option, I believe it's called 1405, you have two choices. One is to send it to the next city election or city general election. Next city general election would be, and clerk can correct me on the day, but I believe it's November 3, 2026. So it's not the next state election, it's the next city general election, which would be the next one that there's a candidate on the ballot. The alternative is to call for a special election which has to be between 88 and 103 days. That means you do have some discretion in terms of the dates that you would pick for a special election between November 1 and November 16. >> So you can either. So the two options. There's only one option listed here, but there are two options to either wait until the general election, which is in November 3, 2026, or to do a special election. What would be the. What would be the benefit of waiting till November? You said somebody else is on the ballot. >> Well, so if you do the general election, there's typically some cost saving associated with that. It's really kind of hard to predict in advance, but there generally ends up being some level of consolidation or. Sorry, some level of economy of scale from the benefit of the consolidation. Whereas the special election can be a bit more expensive because you're the only one on the ballot. So some of those costs that are, you know, not relative to the number of items, but rather just in conducting the election overall are just going to be spread less broadly. >> But is there a legal reason why we were not given that as an option? >> I think he already answered that question. >> Yeah. >> There's no legal reason why. Just was excluded. >> No, I believe what. So I did give the council confidential memo to make sure that you were all aware of that. My memo, however, went out close to when we published. And I will say that typically the staff reports are put in a week or so in advance, so yeah. >> So it's new law. >> He asked, you asked and he answered. That was asked and answered. >> Prior to this, we're not in court, so I don't know what you're doing. So this is in statute. I'm saying that we have two options, but we were not presented with those two options. We've only been presented with one. One. Does that mean that you can't vote on the other one because it was not put into the staff report? This is the only option now? >> No, that's not the case. You do have two options. Again, I did make sure that the council is aware of the options that you have. The fact that it's not in the staff report makes difference in terms of your ability to choose it. The item is on the agenda, you're properly agendized for Brown act purposes. You can go with which so you can still vote for that. >> Yes. >> Oh, okay. Great. >> Council member Ezra. >> I was going to ask a question of whether or not we have any knowledge of when it is that those who gathered all of these signatures would prefer for that to be mostly because out of respect for whomever gathered 9672 signatures, if it has been communicated to the clerk or to the city or any. >> Yes, they've communicated their preference for November 4, which is why they submitted to city clerk on the date that they did such that they would provide ample time for accounting of the signatures and the establishment of that date. That was their preference as expressed to me. >> Is there nobody here to talk about it? >> May I make a comment? May I make a comment, please? I have absolute faith in we the people to make the decision which is best for ourselves and for our community. I don't like taxes. I don't like the imposed rules from the state or federal government which come down on us. However, I see this, our residents have collected enough signatures to qualify. And unlike the state imposed or federal imposed laws, this is a true embodiment of a grassroots exercise of voting power in our republic. So I think we should go ahead and put this to the people's vote. I would just ask people to get informed, get engaged and come out to vote so that we the people can make the final. Sorry. We the people can make the final decision. Thank you. Seconding your motion. >> Hold on, hold on. So we do have another option that we were. So good job getting all the signatures. I do. I think that's a heavy lift. I think that's great that happened. If I'm looking at the pros and cons, I'm trying to look at it from the people side of having enough time to make a decision, enough time for them to educate, enough time for this to resonate. And when you do a special election, number one, the cost, I think the cost estimated here are 300,000 to 500,000, which is going to be an added cost which we pay for. >> Correct. >> Comes out of the general fund. And I know you guys don't think there's anything wrong with the budget, which also would mean there's no reason to rush because there's nothing wrong with the budget. So to me, if the public is going to be aware, if they want more time to know what's in it, they have more time to make the case for that. We're still going to have them vote on it. It's just, when are they going to do it? And so to reduce costs and to give them more time to know, if you have a special election, usually you have much lower voter turnout. So you'd have a lot more people that know that it was fair, know that they had time to know about it and be informed about it they're already voting in the general. I think it would be better optics also for the public to be fully aware, fully educated and make a good decision. So for that reason, I would say I would make a motion that we put it to the ballot in the next general election. >> Second. >> We do have a second. All right, we have a first and a second on my motion. So all in favor of that one? >> Aye. >> So, passed this four to one. We have passed nothing since yesterday. >> So we traveled here. >> Well, we're all aware of the new fire fees update. This actually was not a new fees. This was placed by ordinance in 2023, I believe by the previous city council. We recently made an update to that for the assisted lift. And I've supported that, especially for the group homes and nursing homes who should really provide that service and should reimburse the city for their service when they're calling us. However, I was not aware of this earlier, but since then I have seen a lot of public opposition to it. And I would like to bring this back for a consideration sometimes to see if we can have alternate options and if we can bring this for a discussion from the city staff. Would any one of you be willing to bring it back for a discussion? >> I was sorry to make sure. I understand. To bring it back to eliminate the lift? >> No, to have the alternative. Because I believe that the nursing homes and assisted living facilities, those services they should be providing and I was told by the fire chief that majority of these assisted living, assisted lifts come from the facilities and I believe they should be paying for it. But I'm asking the individual homeowners or individual residents who live in an independent home. The question is, should they be providing. Should they be providing, paying for this service? I know there is a mechanism to waive that fees, but right now they're required to pay the fees. And I'm asking if city council would be willing to reconsider that. And having the staff come back with a presentation on that, is that possible to separate? >> I'd want to do a little bit of review and to look at that some more, but we could look into it and bring you back potential options. >> If it comes back. I think I'm interested in the data, yes. To be able to help make decisions and the data, I'd be really curious as how many people are really paying this. >> So we'll have a very short window for who's paying data, but we can also provide the entire council with the original staff report back of 2023 so that you'll see where it started and what that information was and then when we are able to bring it back which may be first meeting in September could be April, August 19th depending on how how we are able to get the research done. And we can bring you what we have at least to date in terms of the charges and that sort of stuff. >> If we get the data is there a way to segment it to see how many people are paying using insurance versus non insurance just so we can segment that? >> Yeah, there's unlikely we'll have enough experience for that sort of detail but as I understand most of the billings go to the patient not to the facility and then the patient has to either charge insurance or charge the facility so we can have some minor amount of experience in terms of what's happening and how it's being billed so we can bring as much data as we have. >> Okay that'll be great. >> Anything else? We are adjourn.