high-level descriptions of what you want Banning’s future to be and the role of the City organization in pursuing that Vision.
As we work our way down the Plan Overview it becomes gradually more specific. We translated your Vision and Mission statements to four Strategic Goals. We used the Goals as the categories for your Strategic Initiatives SI’s. These SIs are more specific on what your City plans to tackle these next five years.
At your all-day Strategic Plan Workshop on November 25th, you reflected on the SWOTs mentioned above and prioritized (Tiers) which ones should be addressed sooner rather than later.
Finally, we took the extra step and added even more specifics in the Implementation Phase of this document (page 12) for your top (Tier 1) Strategic Initiatives (SI). This extra step of specificity is found in the SI Charters. We are asking that you review these and provide your feedback.
The City Manager’s job will be to keep everyone focused on this Plan. The City Manager will provide progress updates to your Council as outlined in the Plan’s Implementation Phase.
You have inherited unprecedented challenges, but you have responded with an unprecedented plan.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Banning 2030 Designing our Future TODAY!
2. Appendix A Banning SWOTs
927
1 928
i 929
ii
The City of Banning is at an inflection point. With
the addition of three new council members last
winter, the City Council is essentially a “new”
governing body. With that newness comes a new
set of opinions and experiences and a certain zeal
to make things better.
This is the perfect time to set the direction and
priorities for the entire City. This Council just
finished its one-year anniversary as a team. Thus,
the newer members have a year’s worth of
interacting with the City organization and their
community. They have more informed opinions
about the City organization and how everyone
might move forward in unison to meet the
challenges of today and tomorrow.
Self-Reflection
A Strategic Plan is a powerful tool to do just that! It is structured to be first, self-reflective, where
departments discuss their current Strengths and
Weaknesses. And next, they look externally and list
the future Opportunities and Threats. Taken
together, the strengths and opportunities are
variables that can make things better for serving
their mission. The other two variables are barriers
to mission success, and they may threaten the
entire organization or impact the greater
community. We are calling these four important
variables, the SWOTs. These SWOTs can be found
as a separate Appendix A in this plan.
Setting Future Direction and Priorities For The
Futures
The next step addresses: what is it that we do with
this information? The Council thoroughly listened,
discussed, and decided which SWOT (policy) issues
they wish to tackle and in what (priority) order.
These are articulated in terms of Strategic Initiatives.
The goal is for these Initiatives to be completed, or
at least started in the next five years. And because
these are classified as policy issues, there would be
the appropriate Council involvement in their various
phases of implementation.
And when SWOTs of an administrative nature are
not addressed in a timely manner, sometimes they
become (policy) issues for the Council. As a result,
the Council provided recommendations on these
SWOTs as well; however, the City Manager’s
judgement is deferred to in tackling and adjusting
these priorities. These variables will be addressed as
performance goals between the City Manager (CM)
and department heads and ultimately between the
CM and Council.
Converting Ideas to Action!
As the Council approves this Strategic Plan and
“Policy” Initiatives of the City, the CM has provided
an Implementation Phase. This Phase takes the top
priority (Tier 1) Strategic (Policy) Initiatives and
provides more details on how and when the CM
might complete these initiatives. We call this
document the Strategic Initiative Charter. It is the
first step in converting an idea to actionable steps.
After review by the City Council, the Charter gives
staff the direction and authority to act. As the CM
works into the next priority level (Tier 2), it is
expected a new Charter will be developed and
shared for each Initiative.
Taken together, the Strategic Goals and
Implementation Phase will be Banning’s Strategic
Plan—Banning 2030, Designing our Future TODAY!
FOREWORD
930
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
FOREWORD............................................................................................................................................................ ii BANNING VISION STATEMENT......................................................................................................................1 BANNING MISSION STATEMENT .................................................................................................................2 STRATEGIC PLAN OVERVIEW.......................................................................................................................3 TRANSLATING GOALS TO ACTION............................................................................................................4 STRATEGIC INITIATIVES—POLICY ..............................................................................................................5 STRATEGIC INITIATIVES—ADMINISTRATION........................................................................................9 IMPLEMENTATION PHASE............................................................................................................................. 12 Strategic Initiatives Charters ..................................................................................................15 1a. Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)................................................................15 1b. PD Strategic Excellence Initiative....................................................................18 2a. Animal Shelter and Control Services .......................................................... 21 2b. Address Homelessness .......................................................................................24 2c. Wastewater Treatment & Recycled Water Upgrades....................28 2d. Streets Maintenance Pavement Management Plan (PMP) .......32 3a. New Economic Development Plan (EDP) ................................................36 3b. Inventory and Activate Underutilized Land in the Downtown ..39 4a. Workout Plan to Fiscal Sustainability.........................................................43 4b. Evaluation of Utility Billing Program............................................................46 4c. PD’s Growth Strategy.............................................................................................50 4d. Strategic Plan Implementation .....................................................................52 Strategic Initiatives Dashboard ...........................................................................................54 APPENDIX A - SWOTs...................................................................................................................................55 931
1 BANNING
VISION
STATEMENT
The City of Banning promotes and supports
a high quality of life that ensures a safe
and friendly environment, fosters new
opportunities and provides responsive, fair
treatment to all and is the pride of its
citizens.
932
2 BANNING
MISSION
STATEMENT
Our mission is to provide our
residents with a safe,
pleasant, and prosperous
environment in which to live,
work, and play, in a fiscally
responsible, citizen-friendly,
and transparent manner.
933
3 STRATEGIC
PLAN
OVERVIEW
Vision Statement
Mission Statement
Strategic Goals
Ensuring Public Safety
Protecting and Improving Quality of Life
Strengthen The Local Economy
Maintain Effective and Efficient Services
Strategic Initiatives
Policy
Administration
Priorities
Tier 1—Now!
Tier 2
Tier3
Implementation Phase
Strategic Initiative Charters
934
4 This Plan of action cannot be a “blue sky” exercise. Rather, it must translate Banning’s broad Vision and Mission
Statements to more specific Strategic Goals and
ultimately to action (i.e., Strategic Initiatives). These planned actions should produce tangible improvements
to the City organization and community.
The background and rationale for these Strategic
Initiatives can be found in Appendix A. This is where the Banning departmental SWOTs are described (the
foundation for Strategic Initiatives).
Given the sheer number, these Policy Initiatives are
categorized by Strategic Goals and also prioritized into Tiers.
TRANSLATING GOALS TO ACTION
TRANSLATING
GOALS TO
ACTION
935
5 • 1a. Create Banning’s Emergency Operation Plan—City
Manager
• 1b. Provide One-Time Resources and Independently
Evaluate the Police Department—Human Resources and
Police
1st Tier Policy
Related Initiatives
STRATEGIC GOAL 1—ENSURING PUBLIC SAFETY
STRATEGIC
INITIATIVES—
POLICY
936
6 • 2a. Address The Lack of Animal Control and Shelter—City Manager
• 2b. Address Homelessness—City Manager
• 2c. Complete Wastewater Treatment Plan & Recycled Water Upgrades—Public Works
• 2d. Develop Formal Preventative Maintenance Plan (For Streets)—Public Works1
1st Tier Policy
Related Initiatives
• 2g. Update Engineering Standards. & Specifications for Development—Public Works
• 2h. Seek Additional Funding for Streets Pavement Mgmt.
Plan—Public Works
• 2i. Fund the Updated Parks and Recreation Master Plan— Parks & Recreation
• 2j. Enhance School Partnerships for Parks & Recreation 3rd Tier Policy
Related Initiatives
• 2e. Update Integrated Master Plan (IMP) & Evaluate
Water/Wastewater User Rate Structure—Public Works
• 2f. Develop a Pavement Management. Plan and Policies
(Streets)—Public Works
2nd Tier Policy
Related Initiatives
STRATEGIC GOAL 2—PROTECTING AND IMPROVING
QUALITY OF LIFE
937
7 • 3a. Develop New Economic Development (ED) Plan—City Manager
• 3b. Inventory & Activate Underutilized Land in Downtown— City Manager & Community Development
1st Tier Policy
Related Initiatives
STRATEGIC GOAL 3—STRENGTHEN LOCAL
ECONOMY
938
8 STRATEGIC GOAL 4—MAINTAIN EFFECTIVE
& EFFICIENT SERVICES
• 4a. Develop and Implement Banning’s Financial Workout Plan to Sustainability—Finance and City Manager
• 4b. Do In-Depth Evaluation of the City’s Utility Billing Program and Tools—Finance
• 4c. Develop & Implement a Proactive Outreach & Hiring Program For Police—Human Resources and Police
• 4d. Strategic Plan Implementation—City Manager
1st Tier Policy
Related Initiatives
• 4m. Make Cyber Security a Core Priority of the Organization- -Finance 3rd Tier Policy
Related Initiatives
• 4e. Develop New Banning Organizational Culture—City
Manager and Human Resources
• 4f. Assessment of the Risk Management Program—Human
Resources
• 4g. Independent Review of Purchasing Process—Finance
• 4h. Develop More Accessible Purchasing Process for
Small/Local Vendors--Finance
• 4i. Develop/Implement Banning’s IT Strategic Plan—Finance • 4j. Achieve BEU Fiscal Solvency and Sustainability—Public Works and City Manager
• 4k. Streamline Permitting, Bus. Licensing and Customer Svc.
Systems—Community Development
• 4l. Develop Plan to Enhance Staffing Capacity, Stability, and Institutional Knowledge Retention—Human Resources &
Community Development
2nd Tier Policy
Related Initiatives
939
9 Since the dividing line between Policy related initiatives (within the Council purview) and the Administration
related initiatives (within the City Manager purview) is very grey at times, especially when Administrative issues are not properly managed, some initiatives morph into
acute challenges for the Council.
Thus, these administrative-related solutions or initiatives became “fair play” for Council and this Strategic Plan.
The City Council discussed and recommended priorities
for these Strategic Initiatives as well. While their voice on these matters is noted, it is the City Manager that needs discretion and room to tackle these given the myriad
variables (e.g., staff capacity, the number of competing priorities, complexity, etc.).
STRATEGIC
INITIATIVES—
ADMINISTRATION
940
10 1st Tier Administrative Initiatives
• 1a. Develop a Community Outreach Process—Police
GOAL 1—ENSURING PUBLIC SAFETY
GOAL 2—PROTECTING AND IMPROVING
QUALITY OF LIFE
1ST Tier Administrative Initiatives
• 2a. Complete Updated Parks and Recreation Master Plan— Parks & Recreation
• 2b. Evaluate Adding More Capacity for Road
Maintenance—Public Works
1st Tier Administrative Initiatives
• 3a. Complete Edison’s Wholesale Distribution Access
Tariff Agreement—Public Works
• 3b. As BEU Becomes Solvent, Ramp Up Capital Needs—
Public Works
• 3c. Develop and Implement Water Conservation
Program—Public Works
GOAL 3—STRENGTHEN LOCAL ECONOMY
941
11 GOAL 4—MAINTAIN
EFFECTIVE &
EFFICIENT SERVICES 1st Tier Administrative Initiatives
• 4a. Develop a Written Claims and
Litigation Strategy—City Attorney
• 4b. Create a Coordinated Program for
Performance Management—Human
Resources & City Attorney
• 4c. Develop City Employee Transition
Plan For Impending Turnover—Human
Resources
• 4d. Elevate the Utility Billing Function in
Finance—Finance
• 4e. Address the Software Issues and IT
Support That is Behind the Current Utility
Billing Crisis—Finance
• 4f. Aggressively Recruit and Staff
Finance—Accounting with Perm. Staff—
Finance & Human Resources
• 4g. Develop and Implement System for
Monitoring and Managing Cash Flow—
Finance
• 4h. After Completing UB Review (see
above) Buy and Implement New UB
System—Finance and Public Works
2nd Tier Administrative Initiatives
• 4i. Conduct Outreach to Our Insurance
JPAs—Human Resources & City Attorney
• 4j. Develop and Implement Leave
Management Program—Human
Resources & City Attorney
• 4k. Restructure Vendor Onboarding to
Speed the Process—Finance & City
Attorney
• 4l. Hexavalent Chromium Compliance
Plan Implementation—Public Works
3rd Tier Administrative Initiatives
• 4m. Data Cleansing and Migration
Strategy—Finance/IT
• 4n. Consider Changes to the IT Manager
Reporting Relationship—City Manager &
Finance
• 4o. Convene Interdepartmental Team &
Develop a More Responsive Purchasing
Process for Emergencies—Finance
• 4p. Replacement of Small Diameter
Pipelines and New Potable Wells—Public
Works
• 4q. Complete a Facility Condition
Assessment—Public Works
• 4r. Address Facility Deferred Maintenance
Issues—Public Works
• 4s. Seek Greater GIS Integration with
Asset Management Software (AMS)—
Public Works
• 4t. More Help in Implementing Newer
Stormwater Requirements—Public Works
• 4u. Move Landscape Services to
Contractors—Public Works
• 4v. Development of Career Paths—
Parks/Recreation & Human Resources
• 4w. Explore and Implement Surge
Capacity—Community Development
942
12 This Implementation Phase of the Plan is to ensure Banning converts this Strategic Plan to ACTION and that the City Council and staff generally agree on HOW and WHEN to roll out the Strategic Initiatives.
Some of the top priority (1st Tier) Strategic (Policy) Initiatives have already begun, and a Charter was developed for each one (see below). The Charter outlines the How and When along with other important variables. Once this Plan is approved by Council (along with these Charters), staff has the authority to move forward on them.
The City Manager will report out progress on these Initiatives every three months for the first year and every six months thereafter. And as the City Manager wishes to initiate a 2nd or 3rd Tier Strategic (Policy) Initiatives, a Charter will be completed and forwarded to Council as well.
IMPLEMENTATION
PHASE
943
13 1st Tier Policy Initiatives
• 1a. Create Banning’s Emergency Operation Plan—City Manager • 1b. Provide One-Time Resources and Independently Evaluate the Police Department— Human Resources and Police
STRATEGIC GOAL 1—ENSURING PUBLIC SAFETY
1st Tier Policy Initiatives
• 2a. Address The Lack of Animal Control and Shelter—City Manager • 2b. Address Homelessness—City Manager
• 2c. Complete Wastewater Treatment Plant & Recycled Water Upgrades—Public Works • 2d. Develop Formal Preventative Maintenance Plan (For Streets)—Public Works STRATEGIC GOAL 2—PROTECTING AND IMPROVING QUALITY OF LIFE 944
14 1st Tier Policy Initiatives
• 3a. Develop New Economic Development (ED) Plan—City Manager • 3b. Inventory & Activate Underutilized Land in Downtown—City Manager & Community Development
STRATEGIC GOAL 3—STRENGTHEN LOCAL ECONOMY
1st Tier Policy Initiatives
• 4a. Develop and Implement Banning’s Financial Workout Plan to Sustainability— Finance and City Manager
• 4b. Do In-Depth Evaluation of the City’s Utility Billing Program and Tools-- Finance • 4c. Develop & Implement a Proactive Outreach & Hiring Program For Police—Human Resources and Police
• 4d. Strategic Plan Implementation—City Manager
STRATEGIC GOAL 4—MAINTAIN EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT SERVICES 945
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
1a. Create Banning’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)
15 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative does this Charter address? 1a. Create Banning’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)—City Manager What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
Create Banning’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)
What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? Emergencies and disasters (e.g., fires, earthquakes, floods, prolonged power outage during the summer) take different forms that require different responses from impacted public agencies. Some disasters can be addressed within the confines of Banning’s capabilities while others may require County, State or Federal resource capabilities.
There is a uniform structure and process for how each level of government requests help and interacts with each other. And with this uniformity comes structures for incident response. Much of this is prescribed in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS). This uniformity provides scalability and interoperability for Banning vis-à-vis other public agencies.
The City shall develop a Banning EOP that follows NIMS and is well coordinated with the Riverside County Emergency Management Department; thus, coordinated with other public partners. It will provide the framework to guide the City in responding to various emergencies and when to open the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). It will also provide guidance for Banning residents during emergencies.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know?
This Strategic Initiative was the only one that did not emanate from the detailed discussions in the SWOTs section. Rather, the City Council added this as part of their day-long Strategic Plan Workshop in November 2025.
The Weakness and Threat is apparent. The City does not have an Emergency Operations Plan that guides the entire City’s response through a substantial disaster.
Granted, Police and Fire do have their own incident command systems, but there is Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
1a. Create Banning’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)
946
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
1a. Create Banning’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)
16 currently nothing that guides the entire City and when to seek help from other public agencies.
Who is the project sponsor?
City Manager
Who is the project lead?
Police or Fire Chief. However, there will likely be a contracted project manager for EOP development and training. One of the two Chiefs will be the City lead given their experience in the incident command system.
Other team members and roles?
The City management team (Directors) will be important team members given they guide their department’s response to an emergency, and they will likely fulfill a role in the EOP/EOC incident command structure.
Finally, once the EOP is understood and approved by the Council, everyone (all City staff and Council) will have an important role in its implementation.
Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? Riverside County, the City Council, all City staff and Banning residents will all have an important stake in this Plan.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
No
If not, how much will be needed?
Estimated at $50,000 for development of EOP plus ongoing cost for training.
Funding Source: Cost allocation to all departments.
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Milestones Estimated Dates
1. Acquire EOP expertise through the County or from
other sources—will likely require Council action
May 1, 2026
947
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
1a. Create Banning’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)
17 Milestones Estimated Dates
2. Project Commences June 1, 2026
3. Draft EOP is shared with Council September 1, 2026
4. Council adopts Banning’s EOP October 1, 2026
5. At the completion of item 4, City staff is trained,
and the first “tabletop” exercise commences.
February 1, 2027
What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
Because this EOP is designed for incidents that rarely occur, there is risk that this Initiative will constantly take a back seat to the plethora of issues being addressed by Banning right now.
To manage this, someone must be picked as the Champion of this project and it must be brought to the forefront whenever possible.
948
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
1b. The Banning PD Strategic Excellence Initiative
18 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative does this Charter address? 1b. Provide One-Time Resources and Independently Evaluate the Police Department— Human Resources & Police
What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
The Banning PD Organizational Assessment and Improvement Initiative What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? To address the systemic issues identified in the Banning Police Department (BPD) SWOT discussion, the City Council has prioritized the allocation of one-time resources for an independent Departmental Assessment. This initiative is designed to provide an objective evaluation of the department’s current culture (e.g. norms for behavior and performance at all levels of the department vs. a uniform department-wide best practice one). It will also provide the Chief with actionable strategies to transition the current department culture to a more positive one. Besides establishing desired behaviors and values, it will establish consistent performance expectations across all ranks. Furthermore, the assessment will involve a collaborative review with the Chief, Human Resources (HR), and the City Attorney’s Office to establish the department as a desired employer but also mitigate future claims and improve the department’s professional environment.
The City has chosen Jacob Green and Associates (JGA), a California-based consulting firm specializing in organizational assessment, executive recruitment, leadership development, facilitated team development, and executive coaching for public sector agencies. JGA was recommended by PERMA the City’s Risk Management Authority for General Liability and Workers’ Compensation. JGA’s work is grounded in a deep understanding of local government and public safety environments, and their approach is guided by a simple principle: Listen First, Design Second. JGA will work collaboratively with BPD and HR to provide objective insight, strengthen organizational alignment, and support informed decision-making.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know e.g., can you break the Goal down to objectives? Conducting a formal Organizational Assessment is a powerful strategic move for the Banning Police Department because it directly addresses the "stew" of issues outlined in the Police SWOT discussion. They include negative culture and morale in some parts Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
1b. The Banning PD Organizational Assessment and Improvement Initiative 949
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
1b. The Banning PD Strategic Excellence Initiative
19 of the department, high staff turnover, difficulty in recruitment and substantial claims filed by employees.
Instead of treating symptoms (like high turnover and large claims), an assessment identifies the root causes.
Who is the Project Sponsor?
City Manager
Who is the project lead?
Collaborative effort between Human Resources Director (lead), the Police Chief and the City Attorney (as appropriate).
Other team members?
Police management and possibly other opinion leaders in the department.
Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? Banning Police Officers Association, Banning Police Management Association, the Council and community.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
Yes
If not, how much will be needed?
N/A
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Milestones Estimated Dates
1. City Council approves scope of work and contract
with Jacob Green and Associates
January 13, 2026
2. Conduct Assessment 60 days after project
commenced
950
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
1b. The Banning PD Strategic Excellence Initiative
20 Milestones Estimated Dates
3. Review Assessment Report recommendations and
develop proposed Implementation Plan for Police
Chief and City Manager
90 days after project
commenced
What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
Addressing identified root causes may require accountability, changes in behavior and practices, and broad organizational buy-in to a new direction. Achieving this level of alignment will require commitment from all employees. In some cases, this transition may present challenges and necessitate difficult but necessary organizational changes.
951
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
2a. Re-establish Animal Shelter and Increase Animal Control Services 21 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative does this Charter address? 2a. Address the Lack of Animal Shelter and Animal Control Services—City Manager What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
Animal Shelter Services - Local Restoration and Regional Solutions What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? The City will pursue a phased strategy that addresses Animal Shelter & Control restoration needs in the near-term while evaluating long-term regional Shelter & Animal Control service delivery options.
Animal Shelter
Recognizing that the existing animal shelter facility has been closed for an extended period, the City will first complete a Facility Condition Assessment and Operational Feasibility Analysis. These studies will identify required improvements, regulatory compliance needs, capacity constraints, staffing requirements, and associated capital and ongoing operations and maintenance (O&M) costs necessary to safely reopen the facility. Based on the results of these assessments, the City will develop reopening scenarios that align service levels with available resources and budget capacity.
At the same time, the City will continue discussions with neighboring jurisdictions and regional partners to evaluate the feasibility of forming a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) or similar governance structure. A regional JPA could provide a framework for financing, constructing, and operating a regional animal shelter facility, maximizing economies of scale, improving service consistency, and reducing long-term costs and operational risk for participating agencies. However, the regional approach will take much longer, say 3-5 years.
This dual-track approach allows the City to maintain flexibility, ensure informed decision-making, and present City Council with clear options for both near-term shelter operations and long-term regional solutions. Any decision to reopen the existing facility, participate in a JPA, or pursue a regional facility would be subject to City Council policy direction and approval.
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
2a. Re-establish Animal Shelter and Increase Animal Control Services 952
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
2a. Re-establish Animal Shelter and Increase Animal Control Services 22 How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know?
The SWOT discussion spoke to the lack of Animal Control and Shelter services. This project will provide an Animal Shelter that improves/increases animal control services provided to the community. These services will be able to mitigate a threat to public health and safety.
Who is the project sponsor?
City Council
Who is the project lead?
City Manager
Other team members and roles?
Director of Public Works (building assessment, capital improvements), Animal Control Officers (operations) and possible JPA participating agencies.
Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? The City Council, Non-Profits, Animal Control officers, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and Banning residents are all stakeholders.
Council provides authority to invest in the required improvements to the City existing facility and ultimately approve participation in a regional solution. Non-profits will provide cost effective support in finding homes for animals and could aid in supporting Animal Shelter operations. Animal Control Officers will provide input on facility needs and operations. Morongo Band of Mission Indians (MBMI) have expressed interest in utilizing the existing facility. If a regional facility is pursued, other JPA agencies would be stakeholders.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
No
If not, how much will be needed?
The Facility Assessment and Feasibility Study was recently awarded and has a contract value of $145,000; $50,000 was committed by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.
The construction and operating costs will be refined after the completion of the facilities assessment. The City may be able to find one-time funding for the capital 953
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
2a. Re-establish Animal Shelter and Increase Animal Control Services 23 portion, but ongoing operations will be more difficult. A rough estimate for operations is $600,000 to $800,000. The Morongo Band of Mission Indians may participate in it too. The cost for a regional JPA option is not known at this time.
Funding Source: General Fund and possible contributions from partnering agencies (e.g. MBMI, etc.)
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Milestones Estimated Dates
1. The Facility Condition & Operational Assessment
was started in January 2026
May 2026
2. Determine City fiscal capacity to re-establish the
Animal Shelter, including operations
June 2026
3. Outreach with potential JPA partners in a regional
solution
Ongoing
4. Assess likelihood and timing of the regional
approach and consider implementing the local
option.
If local option is pursued,
anticipate 18-24 months
of design & construction
activity
5. Consider the regional solution 3-5 years
What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
Funding: Given the City’s General Fund fiscal position, the biggest risk is finding the funds for capital and operations under both scenarios (i.e., local and regional) .
However, there is an unquantifiable risk to the City’s quality of life with a continued void for these services.
Regional Participation: The success of a JPA would be highly dependent on the sustained commitment and alignment of participating regional partners. 954
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
2b. Address Homelessness
24 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative does this Charter address? 2b. Address Homelessness
What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
Responding to Homelessness in the City
What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? The City will develop and implement a comprehensive Homelessness Response Plan (HRP) informed by best practices from peer agencies that have demonstrated success in managing homelessness through coordinated outreach, services, and enforcement.
The program will be built on strong partnerships with Riverside County (e.g., social services, behavioral health, jail/Sheriff), and local and regional non-profits that provide social services, behavioral health support, housing navigation, and re-entry assistance.
As part of this strategy, the City will review and update its anti-camping ordinance to ensure it is clear, enforceable, and aligned with current legal standards and best practices. Ordinance updates will focus on protecting public health and safety, preserving access to public spaces, and supporting consistent enforcement in coordination with outreach and available services.
The strategy will also include coordinated encampment cleanups in coordination with outreach and service providers, to address health, safety, and sanitation concerns in public spaces. These efforts will help reduce impacts on infrastructure and Police responders, improve cleanliness, and support safe and accessible public areas for residents and businesses.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know?
Through the implementation of a well-designed and coordinated HRP, the City anticipates a measurable reduction in homelessness-related activity. This will result in fewer homelessness-related calls for service to the Police Department, which currently represent the City’s highest call volume, thereby allowing law enforcement resources to be more effectively allocated to other citizen calls for services. In addition, a reduction in encampments is expected to decrease the number of hours Public Works staff spend on encampment cleanup and related maintenance activities.
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
2b. Address Homelessness
955
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
2b. Address Homelessness
25 Reduced homelessness activity in the downtown area is also expected to positively influence economic development by improving overall conditions for businesses and increasing investor confidence. A cleaner, safer, and more predictable environment supports private investment, commercial activity, and long-term revitalization efforts.
Finally, decreased homelessness activity in public spaces such as parks, sidewalks, and rights-of-way is expected to reduce community concerns related to health, safety, and accessibility, helping ensure that public spaces remain safe, sanitary, and accessible for all residents and visitors.
Who is the project sponsor?
City Council
Who is the project lead?
City Manager
Other team members and roles?
Director of Public Works (encampment cleanup), Police (Homeless Liaison Officers, Code Enforcement) and Homeless Services Coordinator.
Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? City Council: Will set policy direction, approve changes to applicable ordinance and authorize additional expenditures.
Riverside County: Due to the lack of City resources and programmatic expertise, the City will rely on coordination with County program ( e.g., social services) and additional staff assistance for implementing the City’s plan. Additionally, continued communication with the County Sheriff’s Office will be critical to ensure that the release of inmates is not done in a manner that encourages falling back into homelessness in the City. An MOU with the County, which has now expired, once provided funding resources to the City to fund additional Police Officers, to mitigate the impacts the jail would have on the City. Continued discussions with the goal of renewing the MOU would be significant to the City’s initiative of dealing with the homeless problem.
Non-Profits: Can assist in providing outreach and supportive services.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
No
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2b. Address Homelessness
26 Staff resources dedicated to the development and implementation of the HRP are currently limited, which may impact the City’s ability to implement the program as envisioned. Any additional staffing required to support the program would rely on the General Fund, which is anticipated to experience budget reductions as the City works to address its structural deficit.
If not, how much will be needed?
The development of an HRP is likely to range between $75,000 - $100,000.
In the absence of a formal Homelessness Response Plan, it is difficult to accurately estimate the total cost required for successful implementation. However, based on comparable programs and preliminary assumptions, a high-level estimate for additional staffing ranges from approximately $200,000 to $400,000 annually to support Homeless Services Coordinators and Homeless Liaison Officers.
In addition, the annual cost to contract for encampment cleanup services is estimated to range from approximately $350,000 to $500,000 per year, depending on service frequency, scope of work, and site conditions.
Funding Source: General Fund
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Milestones Estimated Dates
1. Procurement of services to develop a HRP July 1, 2026
2. Commence development of HRP September 1, 2026
3. Draft of HRP Presented to Council April 1, 2027
4. Approval of HRP June 1, 2027
What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
Lack of Bandwidth: The City has limited capacity in the City Manager’s Office to convene stakeholders and potential partners to develop a Banning HRP. Hence the recommendation to procure services from a consultant to develop the HRP, which will include outreach to both internal and external stakeholders.
Insufficient Funding: The successful implementation of a comprehensive homelessness response requires sustainable funding for outreach, coordination, enforcement, and cleanup activities. Limited or uncertain funding could delay program implementation or reduce effectiveness. Grants could possibly help fill the funding gap.
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2b. Address Homelessness
27 Lack of coordination or support from Riverside County: The City’s ability to address homelessness effectively depends in part on access to County-provided expertise and bandwidth (e.g., social services, behavioral health resources, and housing programs).
Limited coordination or inconsistent County participation could reduce program effectiveness. Consistent communication with the County would help mitigate this risk.
County Jail Release Practices: The release of inmates from the Riverside County jail can result in individuals returning to homelessness within City limits, undermining local efforts. Consistent communication with the County would help mitigate this risk. 958
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2c. Complete Wastewater Treatment Plant & Recycled Water Upgrades 28 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative does this Charter address? 2c. Complete Wastewater Treatment Plant & Recycled Water Upgrades.
What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
Complete Wastewater Treatment Plant & Recycled Water Upgrades What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? Completion of the design and construction of the new Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) will accomplish the following:
• Modernize the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).
• Meet Regional Water Quality Control Board’s (RWQCB) effluent discharge limits of total nitrogen.
• Produce Title 22–compliant recycled water for irrigation uses. • Diversify City’s water resources.
This initiative represents one of the City’s most complex and resource-intensive infrastructure efforts, involving multiple external agencies, consultants, contractors, and regulatory stakeholders over several years including but not limited to:
• Finish the design and environmental documents prior to construction. • Identify and address any budget shortfalls via raising rates, seeking additional grants, debt service to cover construction costs.
• Obtain RWQCB’s discharge and Title 16 Recycled Water permits. • Complete construction and commission start-up of the new WWTP. • Produce Recycled Water and implement usage.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know e.g., can you break the Goal down to objectives? Alignment with Water & Wastewater SWOTs:
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2c. Complete Wastewater Treatment Plant & Recycled Water Upgrades 29 • Strengths Utilized: Proactive compliance planning, strong in-house operational capability, effective regulatory partnerships.
• Weaknesses Addressed: Impending RWQCB’s effluent discharge water quality limits, replacement of aging treatment infrastructure.
• Opportunities Advanced: Seek additional grant funds, implementation of recycled water use and future renewable energy (solar panels). • Threats Mitigated: Regulatory enforcement risk, escalating regular and emergency upgrade costs due to end-of-life infrastructure.
Who is the Project Sponsor?
The City Manager.
Who is the project lead?
The Director of Public Works.
Other team members?
The Deputy Director of Water & Wastewater will serve as the principal project manager and will coordinate day-to-day implementation activities. Other members: engineering staff; finance department (budgeting, grants, cash flows); City Attorney; external engineering consultants; construction management team and the WWTP operations staff.
Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? The success of this project depends on coordination with several key stakeholders, including:
• Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB): Permitting authority responsible for approving discharge requirements and compliance.
• State Agencies and Grant Administrators: Provide regulatory alignment and critical external funding.
• City Council: Provides policy direction, budget authorization, and public accountability.
• Ratepayers and Recycled Water Users: Beneficiaries of system reliability, water supply diversification, and cost-effective service delivery. 960
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2c. Complete Wastewater Treatment Plant & Recycled Water Upgrades 30 • WWTP Operations Staff: Essential to successful commissioning, safe operation, and long-term regulatory compliance.
These stakeholders directly influence project outcomes through approvals, funding decisions, implementation support, and operational adoption.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
No
If not, how much will be needed?
Current cost estimates indicate an approximate $30 million funding shortfall. To address this gap, the City may pursue a combination of additional grant funding, debt financing, project phasing or scope adjustments, potential changes to the project delivery method, and future rate considerations. These options will be evaluated and brought forward for City Council direction as the project advances.
Funding Source: Water and Wastewater Funds
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Although milestone dates will be refined and updated throughout the project, approximate milestone completion timelines are as follows:
While milestone dates will be refined and updated as the project advances, particularly due to the design-build delivery method and regulatory coordination, the current target timeline is as follows:
Milestone Estimated Dates
1. Final Design and CEQA Permitting December 2026
2. Final Project Financial Plan Approved By
Council
December 2026
(Tentative)
3. Construction Commencement January 2027
4. Process Commissioning and Startup November 2028
5. Title 22 Recycled Water Certification and
RWQCB Compliance December 2028
6. Project Closeout and Transition to Full
Operations January 2029
Milestone dates are subject to adjustment based on permitting timelines, regulatory agency coordination, and construction sequencing.
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2c. Complete Wastewater Treatment Plant & Recycled Water Upgrades 31 What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
This project carries risks typical of large infrastructure upgrades, including CEQA clearance, regulatory approvals, construction cost escalation, schedule delays, and potential changes in treatment requirements. In addition, the project currently faces an estimated $30 million funding shortfall, which may necessitate project phasing, scope adjustments, future rate considerations, or debt financing to maintain progress. Any resulting rate increases to fund this project will be difficult to accept given modest income levels in our City.
These risks will be managed through early and ongoing coordination with CEQA and regulatory agencies, disciplined cost and schedule controls under the design-build delivery approach, and regular reporting to executive management and City Council.
Policy decisions regarding scope, rates, or financing will be elevated to Council as needed to keep the project on track.
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2d. Streets Maintenance PMP
32 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative does this Charter address? 2d. Development of a formal Preventative Maintenance Plan (PMP) for the Streets Maintenance—Public Work.
What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
Streets Maintenance PMP
What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? The intent of this goal is to develop a formal and documented procedure and priority plan for maintenance of City streets and right of way assets. The plan would address the following items:
1. Planning and Prioritizing Citywide Paving Projects.
This will be accomplished utilizing the Cartegraph Asset Management (now called OpenGov Enterprise Asset Management) platform and the ‘Scenario Builder’ feature to program 5-year repaving/replacement plans. The platform is already set up to recommend preventative measures based on pavement conditions. This would be performed by a Senior Civil Engineer in the Public Works Department, or consulting staff in case of a vacancy.
2. Tracking Citywide Signage and Replacement Needs.
An assessment was conducted and is being entered in the Asset Management System to identify signs that need replacement, and predictions on when signs will need to be replaced. This effort will be supplemented by staff inspection of all signs on a 5-year cycle.
3. Regular Inspections of Citywide Striping by Staff Inspection.
An assessment was conducted and is being entered in the Asset Management System. Bi-annual staff inspections will supplement collected data and maintain fresh striping on City streets.
Due to current vacancies in the Public Works Department, it will be necessary to contract with vendors for the GIS functionality, and to provide support in formalizing the Pavement Management Plan (PMP).
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2d. Streets Maintenance PMP
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2d. Streets Maintenance PMP
33 It is anticipated that the necessary annual inspections of signage and striping will take 6 weeks of staff time to perform inspection, log results, and update work orders for maintenance items. With only 3 maintenance workers, there is no staff capacity to accomplish this role. This too would have to be contracted or could be completed by adding one more maintenance worker to an underfunded budget.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know?
Regular and preventative maintenance of roadway through early and regular applications of slurry asphalt can extend the life of a pavement system by many years.
This earlier application is much cheaper than a substantial overlay or reconstruction later. This will assist in stretching limited funding available for roadway maintenance further and maintain a higher pavement condition on city streets. An effective preventative maintenance procedure will also have a mid to long term benefit of making a larger share of funding available for more expensive full reconstruction activities on roadway that are beyond their useful life. By planning and tracking work in the Asset Management platform, regular reporting can be produced showing stabilized or improving pavement condition indices.
Regular assessment and replacement of signage and striping can reduce potential liabilities against the City in auto accident cases. Predictive models on when certain signs may be failing that is supplemented by staff inspection can identify problems early, and for maintenance to be performed.
Who is the Project Sponsor?
Public Works Director
Who is the project lead?
The project lead would be the Deputy Director of Public Works, implemented by the Public Works Operations Manager (currently vacant) and Senior Engineer (currently vacant).
Other team members?
The Senior Engineer and City Engineer would be responsible for the preparation of the 5-year pavement maintenance plan, preparation of scope of work, and oversight of bidding for pavement maintenance work. These positions would also be responsible for maintaining the Asset Management system when work is completed. 964
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2d. Streets Maintenance PMP
34 The Streets Maintenance Supervisor would have primary responsibility in assigning work, validating inspections, and ensuring that necessary work orders are created and issued to Streets Maintenance staff.
Streets Maintenance Staff would be responsible for the replacement of signage and maintenance work of pavement striping.
Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? The success of the project is dependent on reliable and continued funding from the State through SB1 funding, as well as continued County Measure A funding. Those are the sole funding sources for pavement maintenance operations, and declining revenues that are not replaced with other sources will contribute to project failure.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
No
If not, how much will be needed?
Office work by the Senior Engineer and the Public Works Operations Manager can be accomplished when those positions are filled. The annual inspections and maintenance work by streets maintenance staff will require additional contractor monies or 1 additional streets maintenance work.
The Pavement Management Plan completed by a consultant is estimated at $150,000 as a 1-time expense.
Funding Source: SB-1, Measure, General Fund
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Milestones Estimated Dates
1. Integration of roadway asset data into the City’s
GIS system and Asset Management platform.
April to June 2026
2. Complete Pavement Management Plan via
consultant
April to June 2026
3. Revised PMP street maintenance activities begin January to March 2027 965
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2d. Streets Maintenance PMP
35 What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
Changes in funding levels and allocations from the State and County are the greatest risk to the success of the project. Staying informed on legislation to plan for changes is key. Without the extra funds mentioned above, this project will not survive. 966
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3a. Develop New Economic Development Plan (EDP)
36 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative does this Charter address? 3a. Develop New Economic Development Plan (EDP)—City Manager What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
Develop New Economic Development Plan (EDP)
What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? This effort will result in a comprehensive Economic Development Plan (EDP) that establishes a clear economic vision, prioritizes key industries and opportunity areas, and aligns City policies and incremental decisions, infrastructure investments, staffing, regulatory and other systems to support sustainable growth. The multiple goals of the EDP will be to pursue the Council’s Vision, that we “...promote and support a high quality of life... foster new opportunities...” The EDP is also key for Council pursuit of its mission, that we create ”...a prosperous environment to live, work and play...” And it is clear from other parts of this Strategic Plan, the City needs additional revenues to sustain the level of services Banning residents deserve and expect.
This Strategic Initiative will result in the City’s Economic Development Policy framework that will create a consistent, Council-endorsed approach to decision-making across all departments and at the Council level. The framework will:
• Define priority industries, corridors, and opportunity sites. • Align land use, infrastructure, utilities, and permitting processes with economic goals.
• Strengthen the City’s role as a “business-friendly, one-stop shop” for business and development.
• Improve organizational capacity, staffing stability, and internal systems. • Provide clear direction for subsequent initiatives.
• Targeted business attraction, retention, workforce partnerships, and branding This effort will be aspirational but also grounded with the realities of the marketplace, what the community will support, and it affects the quality of life and ability to provide municipal services.
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3a. Develop New Economic Development Plan (EDP)
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3a. Develop New Economic Development Plan (EDP)
37 Finally, this EDP strategy must include a public outreach and educational component or else the final product will not be accepted and supported, especially as it gets implemented.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know?
The relevant SWOTs are many: there is a significant amount of underutilized land, and the downtown area shows clear opportunities for reinvestment and revitalization; the residential dominance of the City does not provide adequate resources to sustain their City—the major service provider to them; the City’s reputation is one of antidevelopment; the City organization is not sustainable without substantial more resources; the per capita income is low compared to Riverside County and California; while, Banning’s unemployment rate is high compared to Riverside County and California; and, a major Interstate Highway runs through our City, which is an asset for certain land uses.
While much of the above variables can be construed as negative factors; they do suggest there is potential for development and growth.
Who is the project sponsor?
City Manager in close coordination with the City Council Who is the project lead?
Economic Development Manager in close coordination with the City Manager Other team members and roles?
Multiple departments heads in various stages of the project (i.e. Community Development Director, Public Works Director, Police and Fire Chiefs, Finance Director and Parks & Recreation Director).
City Council, local business and property owners, residents, developers, regional partners, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and state agencies.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
No.
If not, how much will be needed?
$125,000 -$200,000
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3a. Develop New Economic Development Plan (EDP)
38 Funding Source: General Fund
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Milestones Estimated Dates
1. Procure contracted services to develop EDP March to June 2026
2. Data collection, market analysis, stakeholder
engagement, and system assessments
July to September 2026
3. Draft EDP prepared, internal alignment and policy
refinement workshops with stakeholders and
Council
October to December
2026
4. Council reviews, refines and adopts EDP January to March 2027
5. Annual progress reporting and performance
monitoring
ongoing
What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
Developing consensus among stakeholders on what is viable, realistic and appropriate economic development will be a challenge. Banning has a history of being a bedroom community and will push back against certain land use changes.
Other residents have desires for certain economic development that will not be realistic for some time in Banning. The public outreach effort needs input on future goals, but it also requires an education component, so residents develop informed expectations.
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3b.
39 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative does this Charter address? Strengthening and Diversifying the Local Economy – Community & Economic Development
What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
Inventory and Activate Underutilized Land in the Downtown What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? In conjunction with the development of a new Economic Development (ED) Plan, the City will conduct a comprehensive inventory of underutilized and City-owned land in the downtown core and pursue strategies to sell, lease, or activate these properties in alignment with long-term fiscal and economic objectives.
The strategy includes:
• Creating a parcel-by-parcel inventory of City-owned and underutilized downtown land
• Evaluating highest and best use scenarios aligned with the ED Plan and General Fund Workout Plan
• Identifying targeted incentives and development tools to encourage private investment
• Actively marketing priority sites to developers and regional partners • Engaging residents and stakeholders through a structured outreach program This effort recognizes that economic development and the City’s fiscal future are inseparably linked, and that land assets must be strategically leveraged to support sustainable revenue generation.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know?
This project directly addresses several key SWOT findings:
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3b. Inventory and Activate Underutilized Land in the Downtown 970
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3b.
40 Strengths
• Strategic downtown location and City land ownership
• Proximity to civic uses, transit corridors, and existing infrastructure Weaknesses
• Underutilized land and fragmented development patterns • Limited proactive land marketing and activation
Opportunities
• Ability to catalyze downtown revitalization through targeted redevelopment • Potential to generate new General Fund revenues and economic activity Threats
• Continued stagnation or loss of investment to competing cities • Ongoing fiscal pressures without new revenue sources
How success will be measured:
• Completion of a downtown land inventory
• Number of sites marketed, activated, or entitled
• Properties sold and/or leased
• Increase in assessed valuation, sales tax, or other General Fund revenues Who is the project sponsor?
City Manager
Who is the project lead?
Economic Development Manager
Other team members and roles?
Finance Department (fiscal analysis); Community Development Department (land use, zoning, entitlement support); and Public Works Department (infrastructure feasibility and constraints).
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3b.
41 Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? • City Council – Policy direction and approvals
• City Manager & Executive Team – Strategic alignment and implementation • Residents and Downtown Businesses – Community support and buy-in • Developers and Investors – Capital investment and project execution Their engagement is critical because successful land activation requires policy alignment, market interest, and community trust.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
No
If not, how much will be needed?
Estimated additional funding: $100,000, depending on the level of market analysis, consultant support, and outreach efforts required.
Initial inventory work and internal coordination can be completed using existing staff resources. However, market studies, appraisals, valuation, developer outreach, and incentive structuring may require additional funding.
Funding Source: General Fund
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Milestones Estimated Dates
1. Complete inventory of City-owned and
underutilized downtown land
June, 2026
2. Council review and policy direction on priority
sites
September, 2026
3. Procure services for appraisals, market analysis,
etc.
January, 2027
4. Marketing and developer outreach July, 2027
5. Site disposition, activation and development Ongoing 972
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3b.
42 What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
Implementation of an economic development strategy involves risks, including limited developer interest due to market conditions, community concerns related to land disposition or change, infrastructure or entitlement constraints, and potential misalignment between fiscal needs and development timing.
These risks will be managed through phased implementation and flexible development tools, early and ongoing community outreach, close coordination with stakeholders, and the use of objective market data to guide informed decision-making. 973
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4a. Banning’s Workout Plan to Fiscal Sustainability
43 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative (SI) does this Charter address? 4a. Develop & Implement Banning’s Financial Workout Plan to Sustainability—Finance and City Manager.
What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
Banning’s Workout Plan to Fiscal Sustainability
What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? Once the clean up the financial “books” is finished by catching up accounting activities to develop the City’s current fiscal position (from 7/1/24 to current), largely focused on the General Fund and Internal Service Funds (ISFs); the recommended plan would be to develop a 10-year Fiscal Forecast into the future. From this exercise, options to bring these funds into a sustainable condition can be developed for Council consideration.
The most immediate action would be to bring the FY 25-26 books current in order to review the FY 25-26 budget, mid-year expenditure activity and consider any emergency changes to the budget. The City then should develop a transparent operating and capital budget for Council adoption (FY 26-27) after considering the current and expected 1 and 10-year fiscal estimates.
Creating a robust CFD program is just one of many potential actions towards creating a sustainable position for the City’s General and ISF Funds.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know?
There is no other Strategic Initiative that is so foundational to almost all the other SI’s and SWOTs--especially the Weaknesses and Threats. The City cannot assertively address all the proposed SI’s until the fiscal position is known, now and into the future.
Additionally, the City’s fiscal position will be key to other policy decisions (e.g., Council approaches to Economic Development, etc.).
Who is the project sponsor? (Advocate and decision maker, when needed) City Council
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4a. Banning’s Workout Plan to Fiscal Sustainability
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4a. Banning’s Workout Plan to Fiscal Sustainability
44 Who is the project lead?
City Manager
Other team members and roles?
Finance Director, accounting staff and contracted assistance are all critical to updating the fiscal data; evaluating the results and implications; forecasting the future; and, facilitating discussions with the Council on options to move forward.
Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? Outside regulatory and oversight agencies and Banning citizens (see discussion on risks below).
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
No. This effort was not anticipated in the current budget; however, there is substantial salary savings in the Finance budget that can cover some of these costs If not, how much will be needed?
The City’s current allocation of resources includes approximately $500,000 for contracts with LSL (the accounting firm that is tasked with cleaning up the books) among other activities; a current contract with Urban Futures for the fiscal forecast and other financial advisory services, Bob Deis with Sloan Sakai, LLP and the City Attorney’s office. This figure will increase due to an expanded scope of work with LSL to assume more accounting duties. A part of these costs will be covered with salary savings from vacancies.
Funding Source: Cost allocated to departments Citywide.
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Milestones Estimated Dates
1. FY 24-25 books are caught up and fiscal position is
known.
April to June 2026
2. FY 25-26 fiscal activity is caught up and known and
estimated year-end numbers are updated.
April to June 2026
3. Review and update Fiscal policies with Council. As part of the 26-27 Budget process. Budget
to be adopted prior to July
1, 2026.
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4a. Banning’s Workout Plan to Fiscal Sustainability
45 Milestones Estimated Dates
4. The 10-year fiscal forecast is completed, and FY 26- 27 budget is subsequently developed.
The forecast can be
completed 30 days after
completion of 1 & 2
above. The budget needs
to be completed by June
30, 2026.
5. At the completion of item 4, Council reviews options and decides what actions to implement and
eliminate current and future negative fund balances.
The Council decisions from this milestone become
Banning’s Workout Plan to Sustainability.
After the completion of
item 1 through 4.
June to July 2026
What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
There are several potential risks. These include: 1) Outside Agencies withholding funding or otherwise delaying the City’s ability to move forward with a Workout Plan; 2) To the extent that the City needs Banning residents to approve options for more resources, they may not approve them; 3) Once the books are caught up and the fiscal condition is known, aggressive budget/service cuts may have to be part of the path to sustainability; 4) Even though this Council largely inherited the current situation, Banning residents may blame the current Council members for the problem; and 5) The City may experience more turnover in key management staff or be unsuccessful in hiring and retaining staff.
Strategies to manage these risks include:
1) Being transparent on the enormity and causes of this fiscal crisis as a tool to inform future corrective steps--ensuring they are not repeated:
2) Meeting or beating the Milestone Dates above to communicate our seriousness and wherewithal to put the City back onto a sustainable footing; 3) Being transparent with our employees and reinforcing our commitment to them; and
4) Actively communicate our challenges and plans with Banning residents, especially at each milestone to reinforce each step is part of a coordinated plan- -providing the services residents need and deserve. This communication plan needs to be implemented via new avenues and in new ways to ensure resident’s understanding and support.
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4b. Two Phase Evaluation of City’s Utility Billing Function. 46 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative does this Charter address? 4b. Do In-Depth Evaluation of the City’s Utility Billing (UB) Program and Its Tools/Systems Used to Complete its Work.
What is the short title for this Strategic Initiative?
Two Phase Evaluation of City’s Utility Billing Program.
What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? The strategy to ultimately accomplish the underlying purposes of this Initiative (i.e. to ensure the program that is responsible for billing and collecting over half of the City’s overall revenues is using best practices, includes two phases). First, is to complete the Strategic Administrative Initiative 4e. Address the Software Issues and IT Support That is Behind the Current Utility Billing (UB) Crisis. After this is completed and systems are stabilized, the overall program evaluation of the UB function as part of this Initiative will be considered, possibly as part of an overall assessment of replacing the Finance— Accounting system as well.
Phase 1—which has already started, includes bringing in Navaline to evaluate the workflow vis-à-vis the latest version of their software. From this assessment the vendor will propose and possibly install the latest version of their software. The Council will be kept apprise of this next step. Once the upgrade is complete and the program is stabilized, staff will report out the results and possible next steps (e.g.
Phase 2).
Possible Phase 2—Consider acquiring independent professional assistance who has expertise in the utility billing area that can evaluate the entire UB program--from evaluating the current systems and methods to retrieving usage data; manipulating that data for billing purposes; assessing the customer service component, and its interface with our Finance-Accounting systems.
The consulting firm will then make observations on the current processes, albeit with the latest Navaline software version, and systems by identifying best practices and provide recommendations. The criteria in determining recommendations will be maintaining accuracy of usage data, improving efficiency and timeliness of billings, improving customer service, and ensuring smooth interfacing with our current Finance-Accounting systems.
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4b. Two Phase Evaluation of City’s Utility Billing Function. 47 Given the current financial picture and recent history, the City will seek a possible phasing of consultant’s recommendations based on the risk-return tradeoff on options. Another component will include ensuring IT staff become part of this project to enhance their knowledge and support of the Utility Billing system in the future.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know?
The SWOT discussion highlighted the problematic interface between meter-reading and billing software’s (Navaline); the high reliance on slow manual support for the program; the need for additional training in IT systems and Utility Billing best practices and the lack of trust in the program and its output. The SWOT discussion also highlighted that over half of the City’s revenues come from this program; thus, when it’s not properly working, it can have significant impacts on the City’s finances and cash flow.
This Strategic Initiative will be designed to evaluate these issues and enhance expertise in house. It should result in a more efficient, timely and reliable Utility Billing program for the future.
Who is the project sponsor?
City Manager
Who is the project lead?
Finance Director or Deputy Finance Director (positions currently vacant).
Other team members and roles?
The Utility Billing Manager and a senior managers in Public Works (Electric, Water and Wastewater) will be key members of the team.
Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? The key stakeholders are: Finance—both accounting and Utility Billing staff, the managers of the three utilities, customers and the City Council.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
No
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4b. Two Phase Evaluation of City’s Utility Billing Function. 48 If not, how much will be needed?
Phase 1
Staff is currently establishing a purchase order with Navaline experts to assess the current UB workflow to ensure that staff is utilizing the software as efficiently as possible. The estimated cost is $25,000.
Additionally, staff anticipates that upgrades to the existing utility billing software will be required in order to bring Navaline to the most current and supported version.
Estimated cost for the upgrades range $175,000 to $200,000 for the first year with an increase in annual cost of about $75k.
Phase 2 TBD
Funding Source: Cost allocated to utilities
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Milestones Estimated Dates
1. Phase 1: Navaline, our current software vendor
assesses current UB workflow and system
utilization and evaluates value of installing
software upgrades
May 2026
2. Phase 1: Based on Navaline evaluation consider
installing their upgrades (6-8 months)
January 2027
3. Phase 2: After UB program has stabilized and
proficient in use of the Navaline upgrades, evaluate
the pros and cons of a programmatic assessment
of the UB function.
June 2027
4. Phase 2: Issue RFP, solicit consulting firms with
expertise in Utility Billing programs without
financial ties to current systems, and pick best firm
July 2027
5. Phase 2: Conduct UB Program Assessment which
may recommend a migration to new software.
September 2027
6. Phase 2: Review Assessment Report
recommendations and develop proposed
Implementation Plan for City Manager and
ultimately City Council review and approval.
November 2027
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4b. Two Phase Evaluation of City’s Utility Billing Function. 49 What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
Given the recent history, a two-phase approach will appropriately manage the risk.
Milestone 2 will provide a more detailed assessment of upgrading the current software (i.e., with the same vendor, Navaline). This may require hardware upgrades. Staff will report out to Council at this stage.
If it is agreed that there is adequate benefit to complete a more robust assessment of the entire UB program, this would be done at Milestone 3. There is limited risk in conducting and completing this assessment of the Utility System. Future risks cannot be fully evaluated until issues and options are identified and vetted. However, more involvement with IT staff on this project will add to the capacity of managing risk with this software.
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Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
4c. Protecting the Pass: The Banning PD’s Growth Strategy 50 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Goal does this Charter address? 4c. Develop & Implement a Proactive Outreach and Hiring Program For Police—Police, Human Resources and City Manager
What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
Protecting the Pass: The Banning PD’s Outreach and Growth Strategy What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal?
1. Complete & Begin Implementing the Recommendations From the PD Assessment Study—the goal here is to articulate that BPD is a desirable employer and workplace.
2. Banning’s Targeted Sourcing Channels—start working on developing potential resources for candidates, such as community colleges and high schools.
3. Digital Presence & Modernized Application—Develop a stronger online and visual media presence for our recruitments. Application processes should be updated.
4. Community-Centric Evaluation—Involve the community through job fairs and community meetings.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know?
A proactive outreach and hiring program acts as a vital bridge between the department's current struggles and its untapped potential. By shifting from a reactive stance to a strategic, proactive one, the department can address its 30% vacancy rate while simultaneously healing internal culture.
Staff is concurrently proceeding with Strategic Initiative 1b. The Police Department Assessment to assist us in making BPD an employer of choice.
Who is the project sponsor?
City Manager
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
4c. Protecting the Pass: The Banning PD’s Outreach & Growth Strategy 981
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
4c. Protecting the Pass: The Banning PD’s Growth Strategy 51 Who is the project lead?
Human Resources Director
Other team members and roles?
Police Chief, Human Resources Manager and Police management Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? The Banning Police Officers and Manager’s Association(s); their members feel the biggest impact of the staffing shortage. The staffing issues impact morale and efficiency.
The Community: Response times are hindered by lack of staff and the community loses confidence in their department.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
Yes
If not, how much will be needed?
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? Milestones Estimated Dates
1. Kick-off meeting between Police & Human
Resources
May 2026
2. Develop materials for recruitments that highlight
department and city
August 2026
3. Develop a recruitment advertising plan and include
potential job fairs in community
October 2026
What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
We will not be able to determine the risks until we have our preliminary project kick-off meeting (s).
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4d. Strategic Plan Implementation—City Manager
52 Which Council Strategic (Policy) Initiative does this Charter address? 4d. Strategic Plan Implementation—City Manager
What is the short title for this Strategic Goal?
Same
What is your proposed strategy to accomplish this Goal? There is no other initiative that will be so impactful to the City organization’s future but also to the community’s future as well.
This Strategic Initiative is focused on 1) keeping this holistic plan together and alive; 2) ensuring that future actions and decisions are in alignment with this plan, and if not, there must be a discussion and reconciliation of the two; and 3) being transparent and bringing the Plan Dashboard in front of the Council consistent what is proposed in the Plan.
How does this project address or make a positive impact on the stated SWOTs? How will you know?
This Initiative impacts and is responsive to ALL the other SWOTs; thus, there are too many to list here. We will know the relative positive impacts as we report out with the Plan Dashboard and our relative progress, found in the Implementation Phase.
Who is the project sponsor?
City Council
Who is the project lead?
City Manager
Other team members and roles?
The City Directors are key team members and project leads on various initiatives, both administrative and policy related.
Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
4d. Strategic Plan Implementation—City Manager
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Strategic (Policy) Initiatives Charter
4d. Strategic Plan Implementation—City Manager
53 Who are the stakeholders that can determine success or failure? Why? The City Council and City Manager are the biggest stakeholders that can maintain future decisions and overall direction consistent with the Plan. These two stakeholders determine the necessary obsession and success of this Plan. Banning residents are also key stakeholders.
Can this be accomplished within the current budget?
No.
If not, how much will be needed?
As this Strategic Plan is tackled over these next five years, the City Manager will need a higher-skilled Assistant City Manager to assist in Plan implementation. And this covers only the overall project (Plan) management. The individual Strategic Initiative Charters identify the resource needs for their respective implementation.
What are the key milestones with dates leading to completion? The general milestones for Plan implementation include reporting out to the Council every 3 months for the first year and every 6 months thereafter. This reporting out schedule is to assist in discussing progress, bottlenecks, and revisions moving forward. However, individual Strategic Initiatives have their own schedules, milestones, resource needs and completion dates. Please refer to each for details.
What are the risks associated with this project? How do we manage these risks?
The risks from not implementing this Strategic Plan are numerous and substantial, the details of which are in each Strategic Initiative discussion in this section.
However, the risks of not being successful with making substantial change in the City risks creating credibility issues and a loss of confidence in Banning residents, the business community, and potential investors in Banning’s future.
This Plan needs to continue to be in the forefront of the Council’s agenda for the next five years.
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54 LEGEND
On schedule
Behind schedule
Strategic Initiatives Dashboard Report--date Delayed
STRATEGIC GOAL 1—ENSURING PUBLIC SAFETY Goal 1
1st Tier Policy Related Initiatives Status Explanation
• 1a. Create Banning’s Emergency Operation Plan—CM
• 1b. Provide One-Time Resources and Independently Evaluate the Police Department—HR & Police
STRATEGIC GOAL 2—PROTECTING AND IMPROVING QUALITY OF
LIFE
Goal 2
1ST Tier Policy Related Initiatives Status Explanation
• 2a. Address The Lack of Animal Control and Shelter—CM • 2b. Address Homelessness—CM
• 2c. Complete Wastewater Treatment Plan & Recycled Water Upgrades—PW
• 2d. Develop Formal Preventative Maintenance Plan (For Streets)— PW
STRATEGIC GOAL 3—STRENGTHEN LOCAL ECONOMY Goal 3
1st Tier Policy Related Initiatives Status Explanation
• 3a. Develop New Economic Development (ED) Plan—CM
• 3b. Inventory & Activate Underutilized Land in Downtown—CM & CD STRATEGIC GOAL 4—MAINTAIN EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT SERVICES Goal 4 1st Tier Policy Related Initiatives Status Explanation
• 4a. Develop and Implement Banning’s Financial Workout Plan to Sustainability—Finance & CM
• Finish Cleaning Up the Books
• Fiscal Plan to Eliminate Massive Risk Mgmt. And Other Internal Service Fund Deficits
• Engage Special Tax Consultant to Create CFD Program for Svcs. • Review and Update Fiscal Management Policies
• Develop Transparent Spending Plan i.e., Improved Budget • 4b. Do In-Depth Evaluation of the City’s Utility Billing Function and Tools-- Finance
• 4c. Develop & Implement a Proactive Outreach & Hiring Program For Police—HR & Police
• 4d. Strategic Plan Implementation—CM
Sample Dashboard Report for periodic reporting to Council 985
55 APPENDIX A
Banning’s SWOTs
Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and
Threats
Please refer to separate Appendix A
This compilation of SWOTs is the basis for the
Strategic Plan and its associated Strategic
Initiatives. It was this listing and related
narrative that was the basis for a day-long
City Council Workshop on 11/25/25. The
Workshop purpose was to thoroughly
understand the SWOTs and develop priorities
moving forward to address them.
986
1 Appendix A
SWOTs
Banning 2030
Designing the Future TODAY!
Strategic Plan
February 24, 2026
City Council Workshop
November 25, 2025
987
i
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
CITY OF BANNING’S STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS (SWOTs) ......... 1 STRATEGIC PLAN SWOTS AND INITIATIVES.................................................................................. 3 CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE (CMO)
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ....................................................................................... 4
CITY ATTORNEY (SBEMP PERSPECTIVE)
SWOTsand Strategic Initiatives........................................................................................ 9
HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) & RISK MANAGEMENT (RM)
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................12 FINANCE DEPARTMENT—ACCOUNTING
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................16 FINANCE—INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT)
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................21 FINANCE—PURCHASING
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................27 FINANCE—UTILITY BILLING (UB)
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................30
POLICE DEPARTMENT
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................34 PUBLIC WORKS—ELECTRICAL UTILITY
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................37 PW—WATER UTILITY
SWOTs ..........................................................................................................................41 PW—WASTEWATER UTILITY
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives (Water and Wastewater).................................................44 PW—BUILDING MAINTENANCE
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................47 989
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PW—ENGINEERING
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................49 PW—STREET MAINTENANCE
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................52
PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................55
COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
SWOTs and Strategic Initiatives ......................................................................................59 990
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 1
CITY OF BANNING’S
STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES AND
THREATS (SWOTs)
This section reflects departmental views on their own Strengths and Weaknesses. They were also asked: what do they see as (primarily external) emerging Opportunities and Threats?
Strengths and Weaknesses
Healthy organizations should be confident enough to practice some self-reflection. There is no sense in tackling strategic goals without recognizing the strengths and limitations in achieving them. To skip this looking inward step has the effect of converting goals and expected outcomes to just dreams, that may or may-not occur. We need to better position ourselves to adequately meet the future and do it now. Skipping this step also means to give up control and lessen expectations.
Opportunities and Threats
The delineation of (future) opportunities and threats is equivalent to turning on the “high beams” in your car as you head down a windy road at night. This allows time to better plan your moves before coming onto the threat. It helps avoid the need to drop everything and handle a crisis that is in your lap. However, since we just turned on the “high beams” for the first time, we find many Threats are here and need addressing now.
What sets Banning apart from many cities is the sheer
volume of substantial problems or crises that are in your lap at the same time.
The myriad crises that you’ll be reading about are attributable to a few key factors. One is the obvious, there is no clear and robust strategic planning going on currently. To do this requires some self-awareness and looking into the future. The City has completed so called strategic plans in the past but there was limited follow through (i.e., missing an Implementation Phase). Also, it appears there was limited self-reflection on the overall capacity of the City organization, and its capacity to tackle strategic goals. Finally, it was readily apparent that there was inadequate awareness and management controls emanating from the City Manager’s Office to guide the organization in a coordinated way. 991
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 2
The underlying themes of this Plan include addressing the observations mentioned above.
Unfortunately, the choices for everyone (Council and City Management) now, are more difficult and numerous than other cities.
Given the overall tenure of this City Council, it did not cause the challenges mentioned in this report, rather they inherited them. However, they should be proud in sponsoring this effort and articulating plans to make the organization better. With this effort, the overall Banning community will be improving as well.
This is not just about fixing today’s problems. It is also about putting things in place for generations.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 3
STRATEGIC PLAN SWOTS AND INITIATIVES
At the end of each City office, department, or division, you will note Possible Strategic Initiatives in suggested priority order. And once you read the entire document you will note the sheer number of goals. This reflects the large number of issues that need to be addressed. And to not address them, your list of weaknesses and threats will only get longer or more acute.
These Initiatives can be broken into two categories, Initiatives that are matters of policy and Initiatives that are administrative in nature. In other words, the Policy Initiatives are within the typical purview of the City Council. The other Initiatives are within the City Management purview.
One could try to break these matters out into two reports, Council vs Management.
However, the interplay between these two categories is so apparent, we decided to provide one report or plan. This provides the most comprehensive picture of the City organization and the emerging issues in the Banning community that ultimately must be addressed by the same organization.
To assist the reader, we attempted to highlight which Strategic Plan Initiatives are “policy” related and the rest, administrative related.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 4
CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE (CMO)
SWOTs
Given this Office manages and supports the entire City, some of these CMO SWOTs cover City-wide issues that are not listed in the departmental discussions even though they may be implementors. However, it’s the City Manager (CM) that is responsible for the “heavy lifting” and personally addressing them for the City Council. Some initiatives require the gravitas of the CM position to be successful. However, some of these SWOTs do indeed singularly reside in the City Manager’s Office.
Strengths
Familiarity with Banning—The recently appointed Interim City Manager comes after many years within the City organization managing the largest City department with a diverse array of programs. This appointment provides stability in the position while the City completes the recruitment for the permanent City Manager Apparent Support by the Council—The employment agreement for the incumbent was approved 5-0 suggesting a certain level of unanimity, a degree of stability and support during a large transition in staff and Council members. Council made a commitment to the Interim City Manager to regularly meet with him on a one-on-one basis to communicate ongoing issues and to be kept up to speed on priority projects. Council continues to meet this commitment.
The City Council is Functioning As a Team— As of late, the Council is working well together to recruit for and select a permanent CM. By designating the term “permanent” to the CM position, it will continue providing the stability initiated by the Interim CM, which is a necessary component for success of this Strategic Plan. The Council’s sustained level of teamwork provides the foundation for the City Manager to address the numerous challenges discussed in this plan.
Weaknesses
Staff Turnover and Vacancies—There has been substantial turnover in the executive and mid-management ranks in the City with almost no transition plans; thus, losing institutional memory. This creates substantial risk and problems in continuing services and programs. One example is in the Finance and accounting area.
Inherited Corporate Culture Could Improve—It is apparent upon reading the departmental SWOTs the City lacked a certain level of management controls and oversight to ensure the diverse departments are moving in the same, predictable, and mutually 994
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 5
supportive direction. There was a certain level of independence, that without a proper balance of controls from this office, created avoidable problems. And because of this implied independence, there is a limited sense of urgency within some parts of the organization.
A Plethora of Crises That Require Immediate Action—Very few public agencies are addressing at the same time, the number of crises that can seriously harm the City’s very foundation to provide sustainable services and legitimacy in the eyes of the residents.
Some examples include: the Utility Billing tardiness, the Electrical utility fund balance deficit, the General Fund, and Internal Service Funds (ISF) overall distressed fiscal positions, the lack of fiscal management data, the lack of interest in coming to City employment because of these challenges, the high reliance on temporary or outside help for mission critical roles, the loss of mid-management capability to step in to help during trying times, etc.
Expenditures Require Revenues—In parts of the City budget (e.g., the General Fund, Electrical Utility, ISFs, etc.) there simply are not enough revenues to cover ongoing expenses. And due to poor past fiscal management practices, this was not brought to the fore with the City Council and others in years past. This has and will require hard choices to correct (e.g., large electrical rate increases over time, possible budget reductions, requesting more resources from residents, etc.). This adds stress to an organization that is currently trying to adopt to new healthy practices.
City Manager’s Office Limited Capacity—Given all the issues and Strategic Plan initiatives that the Council will want to pursue, and the plethora of administrative goals; the City Manager will have difficulty staying focused on these priorities. And when you add the need for changing the culture of the City and to properly manage the day-to-day affairs of the City, it is clear the CM needs more help. The CM will need to evaluate various options to assist him, whether it be a Management Analyst or Assistant City Manager. This high workload will be there for at least the next five years. And with the recommended new reporting relationships for Human Resources and Information Technology (to the CMO); this suggests the need for a higher skill set to be added to the office.
Opportunities
An Experienced Team—The Council has formed an experienced team that has substantially restructured finances and repaired organizations in the past. The fiscal information needs to catch up so the Council, City management and its experienced team can develop a fiscal path forward.
Council Is Focused on the Future—The Council has demonstrated a willingness to take on the inherited challenges “head on” and develop this Strategic Plan as a guide to move in a coordinated way forward. This embodies the pivoting away from the transactional and the past, to the strategic long-term future of the City. 995
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 6
Economic Development is Knocking on the Door—There has been documented and serious interest by developers that can add jobs (to a City with a higher jobless rate) and revenues to help “right” the City fiscal ship.
Threats
Financial Vulnerabilities of the City—Given the poor past practices of management, the City’s financial position is distressed for the Electrical Utility, the General Fund, and the Internal Service Funds (ISFs). There is a clear plan to address the Electrical Utility impaired fiscal position that has been reviewed and approved by the Council. Once the Finance Department produces updated and current fiscal information, the path forward will provide for many difficult decisions. We have no choice but to balance future budgets. This may require difficult cuts or equally difficult resource measures that may require voter approval.
Management Instability—While the City is recruiting for new management capabilities, it is important to nurture a stable environment starting from staff, through this office up to the Council. If we fail, we will lose more key managers in the future.
Residential Does Not Pay for City Services—While Banning residents will disagree with this assertion given everyone is paying too many taxes; but the resources to fund the services that residents want simply does not come from those same residents. It requires a healthy business sector (industrial, commercial, and retail). There is a large segment of Banning that prefers more residential over some of the business alternatives; thus, there is a disconnect. This has to be reconciled or the City will be suffering to provide adequate services and balance their budgets.
The Economic Development Door May Close—If Banning repeatedly turns down the Economic Development opportunities that present themselves; the door may eventually close, and opportunities will become scarce for the foreseeable future. This will make your task of financing a robust and sustainability City for now and the next generation, very difficult, if not impossible. This will then cause more turnover in the management of your City. It could create a difficult distress loop (fiscal and operational) that will be very difficult to exit.
Homelessness— Homelessness presents a significant challenge to the City as it impacts public safety, community well-being, and economic vitality. The growing number of unhoused individuals places increased demand on public resources, including law enforcement and public works crews responsible for encampment cleanups and infrastructure maintenance. Visible homelessness can also deter private investment, affect property values, and generate community concern over health, sanitation, and the use of public spaces.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 7
Grants Manager? Without the focused oversight of a dedicated Grants Manager there is a risk of grant noncompliance, missed reporting deadlines, and potential loss or repayment of awarded funds. Equally concerning is the lack of proactive pursuit of new grant opportunities—particularly given the City’s status as a Disadvantaged Community, which often strengthens eligibility and competitiveness for state and federal funding. You will note the many comments in various departmental SWOTs about needing to pursue grant opportunities.
No Animal Control and Shelter— The lack of dedicated animal control services in coordination with an operational shelter presents a significant threat to public health, safety, and community confidence. Without these resources, the City faces increased risks of uncontrolled stray animal populations, potential spread of disease, and heightened incidents of aggressive or dangerous animal behavior in public areas.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INTITIATIVE (policy)
Strategic Plan Implementation—Upon review and approval of Banning’s Strategic Plan, the City Manager will take the top priority goals and develop more detailed plans (e.g., including steps, timelines, resources, etc.), that effectuates the goals. The Council will review and adopt this Implementation Phase. The City Manager will report out semiannually.
The City Manager will also be responsible for high-priority administrative-related Goals, largely through the department heads.
Given the plethora of Goals within this Plan, the CM should assess and recommend to Council the necessary support needed to be successful (i.e., Administrative Analyst vs.
Assistant City Manager).
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE (policy)
In Conjunction with Finance, Develop and Implement Banning’s Workout Plan to Fiscal Sustainability (see Finance Goal 2)—This includes identifying and executing all the components necessary to bring the City’s financing into more of a sustainable state. This will likely require approaching the voters for more resources.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE
Develop a New Banning Organizational Culture—In collaboration with staff, the City Manager will lead an effort to define the “new” Banning organizational culture along with values, desired behaviors, a sense of a coordinated team, effective management controls, etc. The CM will then work with Human Resources to reinforce these norms via 997
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 8
performance management discussions, promotions, employee recognitions, new hires, training, etc.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INITIATIVE (policy)
A New Economic Development (ED) Plan—After it becomes clear what is needed to fund a sustainable Banning, develop an Economic Development Plan that supports the General Fund Workout Plan—see Finance’s and CM Priority Goals 2. This will be a critical part in determining and financing Banning’s future. The two (ED and Banning’s fiscal future) are inextricably connected at the hip. This should also include an inventory of City-owned lands and consider how they might be better utilized to effectuate ED Plan goals.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 5 INITIATIVE (policy)
Homelessness—After surveying how other cities have been successful on managing this challenge, develop Banning’s Homeless Program that includes important partners, such as Riverside County (social services and jail), churches and non-profits. The approach should include both local enforcement in coordination with committed regional resources.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 6 INITIATIVE (policy)
Animal Control and Shelter— The City should take steps to reopen its existing animal shelter facility. At the same time, the City should collaborate with neighboring jurisdictions to explore a long-term regional partnership. A regional approach would maximize resources, reduce costs, and provide consistent, high-quality animal control services for the community.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 9
CITY ATTORNEY (SBEMP PERSPECTIVE)
SWOTs
Strengths
Seasoned Public-Agency Counsel With a Deep Bench of Skill Sets—SBEMP brings to the city one of the region’s largest and most effective labor & employment teams, insurance coverage, environmental, real estate business, and land use expertise. There is also extensive experience advising and litigating under Propositions 218 and 26 for agencies with water, sewer, and electric utilities, mirroring Banning’s portfolio.
Proven Track Record of Stabilizing Agencies Under Pressure—The firm has helped jurisdictions experiencing some of the exact challenges facing Banning to “reset” toward sustainable paths. It has the expertise and experience the city needs now and in the future for navigating complex, high-stakes challenges.
Land Use & Development—A Public Agency Perspective—the team regularly handles public-sector land use and development matters. Senior lawyers bring significant, practical know-how that the City can tap as initiatives arise.
Strategic Fit—SBEMP’s bandwidth aligns closely with Banning’s needs, which is a strength for the City as it embarks on this Strategic Plan’s initiatives.
Weaknesses
New Working Relationships are Still Forming—Recent personnel changes at the City, and SBEMP’s relative newness to Banning mean that team integration and institutional knowledge are still maturing.
Fragmented Litigation Defense—This is driven by the JPAs that handle City claims (workers’ compensation, general liability, and employment practices). Claims tendered to the two JPAs (PERMA and ERMA) are often assigned to defense firms not selected or vetted by the City Attorney’s office, producing a rotating cast of defenders and avoidable inefficiencies (lost time learning players/process). Furthermore, the philosophies and styles of these firms may not always be in the best interests of the City.
Opportunities
Lessons Learned—Convene a retrospective meeting with appropriate staff after the claim has run its course and report to the City Manager.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 10
Reform (Insurance) Defense Counsel Selection—Counsel should be picked for quality, efficiency, and firms that are more in line with Banning’s needs, both short and long term.
The City should work with the JPAs to pursue options in routing claims to firms that reflect City priorities.
Strengthen Public Understanding—As legal matters become public, we should communicate the City’s legal posture to stakeholders. This includes educating the Council, staff and community on risk management, use of revenue tools, and litigation philosophy.
Apply Specialized Experience as Initiatives Surface—As Banning advances capital, utilities, and land-use priorities, the firm’s expertise can streamline entitlement, revenue compliance, and defensibility.
Threats
History of Heavy Litigation and Costly Settlements Around Employment Claims— Banning’s past volume of cases and expensive outcomes increases exposure and sends the wrong message to other staff. Without a reset, this trend can persist as potential plaintiffs pursue more of the same.
Banning’s Employment Claim History Negatively Impacts Our Insurance—Our partnerships via JPAs greatly reduce our insurance costs; however, it requires fiscal partnerships with other public agencies (JPA members). If JPA members perceive they are continually subsidizing our inordinately high claims trends, they may opt to remove us from the JPA or reduce our insurance coverage. This would greatly increase financial exposure to us at the time that we least can handle it.
Fiscal pressure—Broader financial challenges heighten the stakes of every claim and settlement decision.
Adverse Signaling—Without a robust litigation strategy, plaintiffs and firms may calibrate expectations accordingly.
The Large Number of Employees Out on Leave—Besides a relatively high vacancy factor for City positions, there is a large list of employees out on leaves (i.e. Workers’ Compensation, Administrative and other disability leaves). This impairs our ability to provide services. It also increases our costs by backfilling their jobs with other employees (overtime). This should be closely managed with Human Resources, the City Attorney’s office and the City Manager consistent with Federal and State law. Some of this will require more engagement with the insurance JPAs.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 11
Evolving State Mandates—Rapidly changing California housing, land use, and environmental mandates may strain cities and require continual legal adaptation, increasing workload unpredictability.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE (policy)
Collaborate with Human Resources Department on Outreach to our Insurance JPAs— We should engage our two insurance JPAs (PERMA and ERMA) and communicate to our partners what Banning will do differently to change the negative claims trends. This should also include addressing the selection of defense counsel.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE
Create a New Human Resources Program Around Performance Management—In conjunction with the City Attorney, Human Resources and Department Heads, develop a clearly understood program when Human Resources’ input is requested for “upstream” departmental management decisions related to performance management. Also, the program should clarify when the City Attorney’s Office input is required before making more “downstream” disciplinary decisions.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE
Implement a Coordinated Leave Management Program—In conjunction with Human Resources, City management and this office, create a formal reporting mechanism to track progress on leaves. Employees should be assisted in acquiring the medical assistance due them while on leave, but we need to ensure employees return to work when medically cleared. We should refine our Return-to-Work Policy to encourage employees to return to the workforce, when appropriate.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INTITIATIVE (policy)
Develop a Written Claims and Litigation Management Strategy—This Goal overlaps with the Priority 1 Goal mentioned above. This requires collaboration with Human Resources/Risk Management, the City Manager’s Office, affected departments and the insurance JPAs. It communicates expectations, early case coordination, settlement discussions, trial preparation, review of Risk Management case reserves and lessons learned. An after-action report should be part of this to ensure our strategies are effective or we learn how we can improve for better outcomes.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 12
HUMAN RESOURCES (HR) & RISK MANAGEMENT (RM)
SWOTs
Strengths
Flexibility & Helpfulness—We try to quickly and effectively adapt to changes that occur daily. We make sure we are available to employees when they have requests.
Strong Internal Relationships—We make sure to connect with staff whenever possible so they feel comfortable to ask questions and know we will assist when we can.
Ownership & Pride—We are a very driven team and take pride in our work. We take accountability for work and will make sure can provide a solution.
Weaknesses
Limited Capacity—There is a very high workload in the HR & RM programs. Employees can have very high expectations for addressing their immediate needs and disappointed when we simply cannot be as responsive. We currently struggle to meet certain deadlines and complete tasks.
Limited Strategic Influence—HR/RM is viewed by some as an administrative “pushing paper” function rather than a support or advisory resource. It is much easier to properly and jointly plan for performance, discipline, or staffing issues, rather than clean up the mistakes afterwards.
Technology Constraints—HR has a very dated Human Resource Information System (HRIS) system, so we must complete everything by paper. And RM keeps track of claims by an excel worksheet.
Who is Managing a Growing Risk Management Program—The City has historically outsourced major pieces of a robust Risk Management program to two JPAs (PERMA and ERMA); thus, the expertise in the City is limited in this area. The Risk Management program now is a $6-$7-million-dollar annual program that warrants an investment in better managing this program and these City resources. This will help in engaging the two JPAs and assessing their performance.
Opportunities
HR Technology—HR needs an employee platform, the ability to complete the onboarding process online and an online performance management system. RM needs a platform to 1002
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 13
prevent and manage claims, employee leaves, manage safety programs and any other legal matters.
Culture Building—HR, in conjunction with employees and the City Manager first need to articulate what kind of culture they wish to have in their organization. Second, they need to develop a plan to achieve and reinforce it. Tools for culture building include, among others:
an agreed list of employee values or behaviors that guide how they work together, hiring and promotion decisions, performance evaluations, training opportunities, etc. It can include restarting employee recognition receptions and the city newsletter. We need to also look at other employee engagement opportunities, focus on wellness and areas we can reward staff. RM needs to restart all city safety trainings and assist departments with specializes training sessions.
Policy Development—We need to finalize and finish our outdated Employee handbook and Administrative policies; then continue to revise policies as changes are needed.
Threats
Compliance Risks—We are behind on current legal requirements which requires updating certain policies.
Dependence on Key Individuals—When we are down a person in our small team, the work does not stop, and other team members are left to take over that workload.
Talent Retention Challenges—Since the department has a high-workload we are unable to focus on other positive areas, (i.e., employee retention, career development, and employee satisfaction).
Risk Management Costs Have Doubled—In five years, our Risk Management operating expenses have increased from $3.6 million to $7.2 million. The source for some of this trend relates to employee actions or inactions. It also reflects the “hardening” of the insurance market. We need to develop a higher level of Human Resources and Risk Management skills and involvement in “upstream” personnel decisions and actions in departments to better prevent claims; improve the City culture and hold the Risk Management JPA accountable once a claim is tendered.
The Self-Insurance Fund fiscal position is greatly impaired—The Self-Insurance Fund is in the red by at least $8 million (Unaudited FY 24 ACFR) and is budgeted to go further in the red by another 50% in FY 25 and FY 26 each respectively. Right now, there is no cash to fund this program. The overall fiscal management of the RM Fund has been retained in Finance while the budget management is in this department. Absent a structural change in how this program is managed and financed, the deficit will increase even more. 1003
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 14
Substantial Employment Related Claims and Payouts—The City has made substantial payouts that sends the wrong message and is a difficult trend to break, notwithstanding the huge cost impacts.
Corporate Memory Goes Out the Door—There has been high turnover in the City and there is little transitional planning when this happens. This is more acute given Banning’s relatively small size with limited redundancy. As a result, corporate memory around key processes, system or projects leave with them. At best, this creates inefficiencies and at worst, the City is at risk of dropping the ball and making substantial errors.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE (policy)
Fiscal Plan to Eliminate Massive RM Fund Deficits—In conjunction with Finance’s work on cleaning up the books (Goal 2), develop a fiscal plan to turn the Risk Management program into a self-sustaining one and develop the capacity in this department to manage both the budget and the fiscal position of the Self-Insurance Fund.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE
Assessment of the Risk Management Program—Solicit proposals for a comprehensive assessment of the Risk Management program and implement its recommendations to better manage this $7 million dollar/yr. program.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE
Create a New Human Resources Program Around Performance Management—In conjunction with the City Attorney, Human Resources and Department Heads, develop a clearly understood program for guiding departmental performance management decisions. Also, the program should clarify when Human Resources assistance is requested and when City Attorney’s Office input is required before making more “downstream” disciplinary decisions.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INITIATIVE
Develop New City Organizational Culture—In conjunction with the new permanent City Manager, develop a comprehensive new organizational culture that furthers Council and City Manager priorities around good service, transparency, sustainability with the City, etc.
This new city-wide culture needs to involve Human Resources (and possibly City Attorney) in difficult personnel decisions within departments.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 15
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 5 INITIATIVE
Develop Employee Transition Plan—Develop a checklist or plan of duties to complete when an employee announces they are leaving. The check list should identify all key processes, projects or systems the employee was responsible for and provide for transference of adequate information and training to minimize the risk of mistakes and knowledge loss.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 6 INITIATIVE
Purchase and Install New HRMS—In conjunction with IT plans for Finance, purchase a new HRMS system to reduce the need for manual processes and furthering other priorities e.g., timely and well-done performance reviews, etc.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 16
FINANCE DEPARTMENT—ACCOUNTING
SWOTs
This section covers the general accounting, payroll, accounts payable and the overall fiscal management of the City.
Strengths
Experienced Temporary Help—The department currently has two highly experienced former Finance managers that are familiar with Banning and its Finance systems.
The Department Has Recently Engaged A Strike Team—Befitting of this emergency, the LSL LLP CPA firm has been engaged to provide an experienced team to bring the books current and assist in fixing the impaired Internal Service Funds (ISFs).
Weaknesses
It should be noted that this section of the department is in extreme distress with numerous vacancies, a general staff exodus, and a huge backlog in accounting for City operations.
Lack of Fiscal Information—It appears many basic accounting functions had been suspended for approximately a year. Thus, there is limited reliable data on the current financial position of the City. The current temporary staff are conducting basic monitoring of finances such as cash flow management and working diligently to catch up with this fiscal information void.
Poor Fiscal Management Practices—It appears the City has apparently had a difficult time in balancing the General Fund (GF) and Internal Service Fund (ISF) budgets in previous years. Thus, previous Councils approved budgets reflected operating deficits in the GF and ISFs. We do not see the typical staff warning and (Council) discussions about these deficits along with their long-term implications. And it appears this practice violated Council Budget Policy. This had the effect of eroding GF fund balances over time. These practices have also caused massive deficits in the ISFs that was not commonly understood in the City. Finally, it appears the City regularly had to make substantial budget adjustments during the 2-year budget cycle. This suggests more work is needed in developing the original budget.
Extreme Staffing Instability—Since the exodus of core staff, the department is being managed by very dedicated Retiree Annuitants that are subject to CalPERS limitations. The general accounting staff are temporary. The City is currently recruiting for permanent staff.
However, the labor market in this area is very restricted for qualified applicants. 1006
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 17
Gradual Bifurcation of Accounting Systems—The overall accounting system picture reflects a gradual bifurcation of systems around various program activities that are not integrated. Thus, monthly updates on City’s overall fiscal activities are labor intensive and takes too much time to produce meaningful information. It also makes the City vulnerable to one person thoroughly understanding the labyrinth of various subsidiary systems and how they affect the City’s books. And if that person leaves, the accounting support for the City comes to a screeching halt. This is exactly what happened at the City.
Cost Accounting Knowledge is Weak—Most cities have a commonly understood Indirect Cost Allocation Plan that is used to assist departments in understanding their direct and indirect (overhead) costs for providing services. This mathematical model is used to price City services and facilitate policy discussions on what customers are charged (e.g. user fees, etc.). Very few staff understand the Indirect Cost Allocation Plan and it appears various errors occurred in its latest versions.
Internal Service Funds (ISF) Are Not Being Professionally Managed—The ISFs have built up large Fund Balance deficits over time. This trend began in 2019 and has steadily worsened over time. The ISF program managers were not assigned the responsibilities of managing their overall ISF fiscal position. They were responsible for only controlling their annual expenditure budgets, but they were not asked nor given the tools to manage the revenues of their fund. This was kept in Finance and poorly managed. This will require a painful Workout Plan to get back into a positive position over time. This will greatly impact the General Fund.
Decentralized Management Practices—It appears the City has lacked basic management controls including Finance management without the requisite central controls via a strong and enabled Finance Director and an engaged City Manager. This is the primary reason (among others) for the Electrical Utility’s distressed fiscal position.
No Budget Document—The City does not have a readily accessible budget document that explains the City’s spending plans and assumptions to staff, Council, residents and outside interested parties. The City is also behind in completing an audited Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). This last fact sends warning signs to grantors, lenders and the bond markets.
Not Using All Financing Tools—The City is not actively using all the financing tools for services that other area cities are using in the area. One of the most substantial ones is the use of Community Facilities Districts (CFDs), which can be used to fund services and capital needs. There are a few CFDs required with some new development, but it is not widely used to fund, say public safety services.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 18
Opportunities
Purchase a Finance ERP System—Once the City’s staffing and fiscal processes have stabilized with permanent Finance management staff; the City should consider purchasing a new Finance ERP system that is integrated and has the appropriate modules to support other important responsibilities (e.g., Utility Billing, etc.). However, it is highly important that the City acquire skill sets to guide the purchasing decision and implementation phase—see discussion in the Information Technology section of this department.
City Has Convened a Team That Has Addressed Similar Challenges—There is a very high functioning team that has been convened by the City Council that, upon getting data on the City’s financial position, it can work with the Council to execute a plan to bring the City back into a sound and sustainable fiscal position.
Economic Development Interest—There have been developers showing a clear interest in investing in Banning’s future. This will be a very important piece of the “puzzle” to improve the City’s capacity to fund quality services that residents want and deserve.
Threats
Reliance on Temporary Staff—The City cannot continue to rely on retiree annuitants who are limited to 960 hours per fiscal year to conduct core financial management responsibilities. If the City does not catch up soon on its accounting duties; the City will have to carefully manage the transition of key management positions to yet other temporary staff. This affects the timely “true up” of the City’s books, the understanding of its fiscal position and it creates risk to the City’s overall management.
Cash Flow Needs Careful Management—Until the Electrical Utility moves into a positive financial position (rate increases are implemented), the Utility Billing is current, and the Financial Workout Plan for the General Fund and Internal Service Funds is developed and being implemented; the City’s overall cash position will be suboptimum. This becomes very acute when considering cash flow needs for Banning’s Capital Improvement Program.
This will require careful management with regular reports to the City Manager and City Council.
Upcoming Budget Will Be Very Difficult—If the City doesn’t get a handle on its finances by this fall, the City management and Council will be entering a very difficult new budget cycle where they will not have the necessary fiscal information to compile, review and adopt a defensible budget (a new spending plan).
Difficult Labor Market—The one common observation between various executive recruitment firms is the lack of qualified public agency fiscal staff. The City will have to repeat its recruitments until it gets a list of qualified candidates to choose from. This takes time.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 19
The City Has a Robust Group of Municipal Utilities—With the rarest one being the Electrical Utility. Most cities do not have this utility. This is a potential strength and weakness, depending upon management capacity. The City will inevitably have to go to the bond market to seek financing of capital improvements for each respective utility. This process requires an enhanced level of transparency and review by outside agencies and firms. The City needs to demonstrate solid financial positions and good overall management practices over time before it enters this environment; otherwise it will be locked out and limited to other more expensive financing options.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE(possibly policy)
Aggressively Recruit and Staff the Finance Department With Permanent Staff--This may require revisiting compensation to better compete in this impaired labor market. It may also require evaluating current recruitment methods to ensure we are reaching the best candidate pool.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE
Develop System For Monitoring and Managing Cash Flow—This should include estimating cash flow needs for operations and the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) in twelve-month increments. And due to the size of some capital projects, the long lead times, and reimbursement nature of outside funding; cash flow plans should be agreed upon for substantial projects (between Finance, Public Works and the City Manager).
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE (policy)
Finish Cleaning Up the Books By Fall--Once the fiscal condition of the City is known, develop a 10-year fiscal forecast model (includes GF and ISFs) to fully understand the fiscal trends and where they are heading for Banning. The Council should then go through a structured discussion on difficult options to improve the long-term viability of Banning as a robust City providing the excellent services deserved by its residents. The prioritized Strategic Plan Goals (and related costs) should also be included in this forecast modeling.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INITIATIVE (policy)
Review and Update the Fiscal Management Policies--The City needs clear guidelines on when and how the FY 26-27 and FY 27-28 budget will be developed and communicated to the Council and community. There needs to be clarity to the Council and the public exactly what is the City’s financial position; how it has changed and why; and how it might change with the future budget. There should always be a reconciliation between what the budget assumed vs. what actually happened via the presentation of the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). The budget process should begin around January/February to provide adequate time for everyone to provide input and fully understand what is in it. 1009
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 20
Additionally, the City Manager in conjunction with the Finance Director should clarify administrative policy that affirms responsibilities for fiscal management for the overall City via-a-vis the departments and funds. This should specifically cover the City Manager, Finance Director, and department heads.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 5 INITIATIVE (policy)
Engage a Special Tax Consultant To Create CFD Program For Services--To develop a complete CFD program that would be used to create more resources to fund new service demands that come with new development.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 6 INITIATIVE (policy)
Produce a Transparent Spending Plan—This results in a commonly understood and accessible City Adopted Budget. This should be easily available to anyone that wishes to read it. The City Manager and Finance Director should jointly and explicitly affirm (annually) that the plan conforms with the policies completed as part of Goal 3. 1010
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 21
FINANCE—INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT)
SWOTs
Strengths
Stable and Committed Staff—This small work unit has not suffered the turnover of others; thus, they retain institutional knowledge of the City’s IT systems, workflows, and operational nuances. They can translate how the technology serves the mission.
An Established IT Infrastructure—The City has built and maintained reliable (mainly) hardware systems that underpin critical services ensuring continuity, stability, and responsiveness to daily operations.
Commitment to Cybersecurity—With firewalls, endpoint protection, and regular audits by implementing layered defense, such as firewalls, endpoint protection, regular audits, and 24/7 monitoring.
Use of Cloud-Based Platforms—For email, document management, and remote access to operate more efficiently, securely, and flexibly. This forms a backbone that follows a modern, resilient computing environment.
Responsiveness to Service Requests—Quickly and effectively the IT team reacts to user reported problems. IT usually handles and/or responds to user issues within minutes.
Weaknesses
Aging Legacy (Finance) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and (Utility Billing) Customer Information System (CIS) Software Applications In Use Across Multiple Departments—Older Legacy Systems are outdated software platforms or infrastructure that continue to support essential city operations, often because replacing them is costly, complex, or risky. In areas like Permitting, Finance, and Utility Billing, these systems may have been in place for over a decade and are deeply embedded in daily workflows.
However, their age and limitations pose significant challenges. • Legacy systems often lack modern features like mobile access, cloud integration, or real-time analytics
• They struggle to scale with growing population demands or evolving regulatory requirements.
• Customization is difficult, and adding new capabilities may require expensive workarounds.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 22
Limited Budget for Modernization and Emerging Technologies—A constrained budget restricts an organization’s ability to upgrade aging infrastructure, adopt innovative tools, and satisfy user and resident expectations . In city governments, where funding must be balanced across essential services, IT often receives a small budget allocation, making strategic growth and transformation difficult. Some of this is due to the lack of understanding of the IT role in supporting mission critical functions. Some of this is due to the IT “voice” not being clear and strategic in the organizational discussions. • Outdated hardware and software remain in use (e.g., Finance, Utility Billing, etc.), far beyond their intended lifecycle.
• Citizens experience slower response times, outdated interfaces, and limited online services (e.g., permitting and utility billing).
• Manual processes persist where automation could improve efficiency and transparency (e.g., Finance).
• Public trust may erode if technology fails to meet expectations.
Lack of City-wide IT Coordinated Effort—the City IT division operates with lean teams focused on technical operations—network maintenance, help desk support, and system administration. However, without a dedicated multi-year plan covering all IT-related needs, purchases and system implementations, even well-intentioned implementation efforts suffer due to poor coordination, missed deadlines, unclear accountability and unintended consequences. We have the “poster child” for this concern with the Utility Billing crisis. The unintended consequence was the harm it caused to the City’s overall cash flow position given it’s the source of funding for slightly more than half of the City’s budget. As to lack of accountability, very few understood who was ultimately responsible for this new system roll out.
This lack of coordinated efforts produces the following Weaknesses:
• Manual processes are used in some departments, reducing efficiency. Despite advances in digital tools and automation, many city departments continue to rely on manual workflows—such as paper forms, handwritten approvals, spreadsheet tracking, and physical filing systems. These outdated practices slow down operations, increase the risk of errors, and limit the ability to deliver timely, transparent services to residents. The recent Finance Director challenge of attempting simple bank reconciliations is partly due to this phenomenon.
Inconsistent Digital Literacy—Due largely to IT being a decentralized program, there is inconsistent digital literacy across departments. This slows adoption of new tools and modernization efforts. New system rollouts become fragmented and reduces the return on investments from technology.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 23
• The purchasing of software becomes decentralized where independent decisions about which software to buy, often without centralized oversight from the IT division. While this can, on the surface, offer flexibility and responsiveness to department needs, it introduces several vulnerabilities and inefficiencies. New system implementation can be complex and create unintended problems without specialized skill sets (e.g. Utility Billing). Different teams may purchase similar software tools that perform overlapping functions. This leads to a fragmented IT environment with multiple platforms doing the same job (e.g., five different GIS management software across departments). There is increased complexity in integration, support, and training. Software may be acquired without proper vetting for security compliance, data protection standards, or vulnerability assessments.
Shadow IT (unauthorized software use) becomes prevalent, exposing the organization to data breaches and compliance violations.
Opportunities
Federal and State Government Grant Programs—These are actively investing in digital transformation through grant programs that support smart city technologies (e.g., traffic sensors, public Wi-Fi, smart lighting); broadband expansion in underserved communities; and infrastructure upgrades for digital equity and resilience.
Improving and Implementing Public-Facing Services—These are the digital touchpoints where residents interact with the City (e.g. online bill pay, permitting applications and service requests). When these services are outdated, manual, or fragmented, they frustrate users and burden staff. Modernizing them with intuitive, secure, and integrated platforms transforms the citizen’s experience and streamlines internal operations. • Implementing Service Request Platforms—More and more cities have implemented tools for residents to report issues (e.g., potholes, graffiti, broken streetlights) via web or mobile apps. This would be an enhanced version of what we have on the City’s webpage. They often use geolocation and photo uploads to improve accuracy. This can be integrated with work order systems for faster resolution and updates. However, any initiative like this needs to be properly resourced with response capability in Public Works, Police, and other affected departments.
Enhance GIS and Data Dashboards—To support planning, utilities, and emergency response by enabling the city to map, analyze, and visualize spatial data for everything from zoning and infrastructure to population density and environmental hazards. When paired with interactive dashboards, this data becomes a powerful decision-making tool across all departments.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 24
Partnering With Local Schools or Colleges—For internships and workforce development that helps build a local and sustainable workforce. These partnerships create a mutually beneficial ecosystem where students gain hands-on experience, and cities benefit from fresh perspectives, expanded capacity, and long-term recruitment advantages.
Threats
Cybersecurity Risks Including Phishing, Ransomware, and Data Breaches—These threats are no longer hypothetical; they’re persistent, sophisticated, and increasingly targeted. Municipal governments, utilities, and public institutions are prime targets due to the sensitive data they hold and often have limited security budgets. The three most prevalent and damaging threats are:
Phishing Attacks—which involve deceptive emails, texts, or websites designed to trick users into revealing sensitive information.
Ransomware—is a type of malware that encrypts files or systems, rendering them unusable until a ransom is paid—often in cryptocurrency.
Data Breaches—are when unauthorized individuals gain access to confidential information either through hacking, insider threats, or system vulnerabilities.
Regulatory Compliance Pressures (e.g., California Consumer Privacy Act, public records laws)—These laws have myriad requirements including:
• Strict handling of personal data, including transparency about data collection and the right for individuals to opt out.
• Ensure that any personal data we collect, such as utility billing, permit applications, or emergency contact info—is securely stored and properly disclosed. • Possibly new rules that may require annual cybersecurity audits and risk assessments for entities processing sensitive personal data. • Mandates that digital communications and records be preserved and made accessible upon request.
• Websites and digital services must comply with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards, ensuring that all residents—including those with disabilities—can access city services online.
Natural disasters (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes)—Which can disrupt IT infrastructure, especially in our City which sits in a high-risk zone for both wildfires and earthquakes. 1014
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 25
Public Expectations for Fast, Mobile-friendly Digital Services—This may simply outpace our capacity to address given the various weaknesses previously mentioned. Some of the reasons for this threat are: 1) our previously mentioned reliance on old Legacy Systems; 2) our limited IT staffing to develop, test and maintain mobile-friendly applications; 3) reliance on contracting for these skills may be cost prohibitive; 4) cyber security risks may enhance commensurate with expanding digital services; and 5) the digital divide may become more acute without proper support.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE (policy)
Develop and Implement a Banning IT Strategic Plan—With full participation by City departments, this plan should independently assess and address the following:
• The development of an IT Governance Structure that involves all City departments (e.g., Executive Steering and Working Committees).
• Topics to evaluate in the Plan include the previous mentioned SWOTS (e.g., centralized vs decentralized project management and purchases, etc.). • A clear recommendation for a 5-year path to move forward. • A 5-year prioritized and recommended spending plan like a Citywide CIP. • A recommended IT staffing model that supports the Strategic Plan’s recommendations.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE (policy)
Make Cybersecurity a Core Priority of the Organization—Cybersecurity isn’t just an IT concern anymore; it’s a public safety, financial, and reputational imperative for the organization. With rising threats targeting small municipalities, continuing to prioritize cybersecurity is essential.
• Regularly update systems and patch vulnerabilities.
• Conduct annual penetration tests and tabletop exercises simulating ransomware or data breach scenarios.
• Train Every Employee
• Offer mandatory cybersecurity training for all staff, including phishing simulations and password hygiene.
• Make cybersecurity part of onboarding and annual performance reviews. 1015
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POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE
Data Cleansing & Migration Strategy—Our systems contain outdated or duplicate records that should be cleaned or purged. We need to “clean data” before migrating to avoid compounding issues in the new system.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INITIATIVE
In Coordination with Goal 1, Consider Changes to the IT Manager Reporting Relationship— Upon reviewing the various IT needs of every City department in this Plan and the missioncritical nature of it; the current IT reporting relationship should be evaluated and possibly changed for the future. The most likely landing spot would be the City Manager’s Office. This could have the added benefit of freeing up the Finance Director to focus on the core mission of the department, the overall financial management of the City. 1016
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 27
FINANCE—PURCHASING
SWOTs
Strengths
Cost Control Expertise—Skilled in negotiating pricing and securing bulk or long-term discounts.
Supplier Relationships—Strong, long-term relationships with reliable suppliers.
Process Efficiency—Established procurement processes and technology (e.g., eprocurement tools).
Market Intelligence—Good understanding of market trends, pricing, and availability.
Compliance Awareness—Familiar with regulatory requirements, contracts, and procurement policies.
Transparent Vendor Access—Vendors register and receive bidding notifications centrally via OpenGov. This encourages broader competition and accessibility in the bidding process.
Weaknesses
Limited Flexibility—Rigid procurement processes can delay urgent purchases. Parts of the purchasing/contracting process is roughly the same no matter the urgency, size, and risk of the transaction. Emergency purchases are skeptically viewed and delays can create major risks to the City.
Training & Capacity Building—Limited departmental understanding of procurement practices affecting the overall purchasing performance and timing with substantial risk.
Ironically, there is limited procurement depth within the Purchasing staff itself. When the Purchasing Manager is gone, key points of the process come to a halt until her return. This may be a function of the excess process complexity or lack of staff training.
Overdependence on Key Suppliers—Some risk if one or two suppliers dominate the supply chain.
Data Silos—Lack of real-time data or poor analytics leading to suboptimal purchasing decisions. This unknowingly increases organizational weaknesses (decentralized IT system acquisitions) discussed in the Finance—Information Technology section of this department.
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Vendor Onboarding is Cumbersome and Delaying Starting of Services—Once the decision has been made to utilize a particular vendor, it takes too long for contract execution and approval for paying vendors.
Opportunities
Digital Transformation—Potential increased automation, continued use of AI tools, and data analytics can improve decision-making and efficiency.
Sustainable Sourcing—Growing focus on ethical and environmentally friendly procurement practices.
Supplier Development—Partnering with suppliers to innovate or improve supply chain resilience.
Strategic Procurement—Moving from tactical buying to value-driven, strategic procurement (e.g., e-bonding of vendors, vendor outreach to Chamber of Commerce, hosting workshops with underrepresented businesses, etc.) Regional Sourcing —Cooperative agency outreach (e.g., buying coops).
Threats
Supply Chain Disruptions—Geopolitical issues, pandemics, tariffs or natural disasters affecting supply.
Price Volatility—Fluctuations in raw material or commodity prices.
Regulatory Changes—New laws or tariffs/trade policies increasing compliance costs.
Cybersecurity Risks—Potential for data breaches in procurement software or supplier networks.
Fraud and Mismanagement—Without appropriate points of control, it increases the risk of corruption, favoritism, or misallocation of funds.
Political Interference—Localized purchasing may be more vulnerable to political pressure or bias in vendor selection.
Public Scrutiny—Perception of inefficiency, waste, or favoritism must be managed and can damage public trust.
Regulatory Non-Compliance—Purchasing practices need to ensure compliance with procurement laws or federal/state guidelines.
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Rigidity of the Procurement Process—The City may be losing viable vendors that don’t or can’t participate in an extensive, confusing, and rigid process.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE
Work with the City Attorney and Restructure Vendor Onboarding—Once the purchasing decision has been made, continue improving the timeliness of the process that produces an executed contract and appropriate other approvals (e.g., insurance) that support timely onboarding and payment of vendor invoices.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE
Convene an Interdepartmental Team and Develop a More Responsive Purchasing Process for Emergencies—Expand the section of the Purchasing Rules regarding Emergency Purchases—more clearly articulating a process that is more responsive to the risks inherent in not addressing said emergency (e.g., employee safety, risk for more damage to City assets, enhanced liability to the City, etc.).
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE (policy)
Convene an Interdepartmental Team and Develop a Purchasing and Contracting Process That is More Accessible to Smaller Local Vendors or Just Smaller Projects— The rather long and extensive City (mandated) contract along with the Purchasing processes should be revisited for smaller and low risk projects and vendors (including some local vendors). This may produce a short-form contract under certain circumstances.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INITIATIVE
Independent Review of Purchasing Processes—This review would seek ways to strike a better balance between centralized control over every aspect of purchasing vs. the speed and flexibility of purchasing goods and services. This is one of the most repeated comments by departments. The review should consider City Manager expenditure authority, bidding thresholds, etc.
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FINANCE—UTILITY BILLING (UB)
SWOTs
It should be noted that the Utility Billing program is one of the most impactful programs in and to the City of Banning. However, it has not received the attention commensurate with this fact. This has become abundantly clear during the failed purchase and execution of a new UB system. It is this program that is solely responsible for collecting over half of the City’s revenues. Due to this crisis, the City’s overall cash flow has been dramatically affected as well.
Strengths
Customer Focused—Customer service representatives are very focused on customer satisfaction and providing accurate and timely billing.
Dedicated Employees—During the ongoing billing crisis, staff has worked weekends and holidays to get caught up on billing. This dedication has been admirable and has kept the billing function afloat.
Ownership & Pride—Staff is very proud of the work they do in billing and take mistakes personally. They also keep the customers best interest at heart and strive to provide the highest bill accuracy as possible.
Ability to Work in Stressful Conditions—Able to continue working at a high level while still having to deal with angry customers and the stress of getting caught up on delayed billing.
Weakness
Limited Managerial Capacity—With losses of Finance managerial staff, FD, Deputy FD, and Billing Supervisor – the City is working with limited managerial capacity on the utility billing side. While recent line-staff hiring and (re-assigned) long-term existing staff are working to get bills out, there is limited managerial leadership in addressing the bigger and underlying systems issues. In this vacuum, the focus is entirely on day-to-day operations rather than also developing a systems strategy to accelerate and refine the billing process.
There is Limited Onsite Managerial Authority—To work with utility managers, on equal stature, to pursue unique approaches to an equally unique crisis. While the Utility Billing Manager has done a commendable job in this area, there needs to be the Deputy FD presence to seek ways to balance the sometimes-competing needs of overall City fiscal 1020
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 31
management with the operating needs of the utilities. The Billing Specialists should have a relevant voice in this program.
Lack of Interface Between Meter Reading Software and Billing Software—The shift from NaviLine billing software to another software program and back to NaviLine has resulted in problematic interfaces between the meter reading and billing software. While this was a known systems issue at the beginning of the 2025 calendar year, these issues are only now being addressed. This lack of interface has caused significant additional work for the billing department and has exacerbated the current billing issues.
No Billing Software Experts on City Staff—Utility billing staff members are well versed in the day-to-day uses on the NaviLine software; however, there is no current staff who deeply understands the software capabilities.
Lack of IT expertise on Billing Software—Typically with a major software system there is an IT staff member who develops software expertise to address the administrative and technical issues that arise with any major software program. Additionally, there is typically an IT staffer (a best practice) that guides purchasing and implementation of new important software applications. There is no dedicated IT support to fulfill this role, which is a major reason for the utility billing debacle when rolling out a new software application. The current version of the utility billing software is several generations behind and will soon no longer be supported by the manufacturer, which will further create issues in managing the software.
Opportunities
Move to Cloud-Based Software Platform—NaviLine offers a cloud-based billing system that allows the City to keep current on software updates and does not require upgrades to City hardware as updates occur.
Onboard Full Finance Staff—The City is actively attempting to fill current Finance staff vacancies. Once fully staffed, the Finance department should be able to better support the utility billing function and proactively address potential billing issues before they become critical. However, the CFO needs to elevate this expectation when onboarding new management staff.
Fix Meter Reading Software Issues—An outside vendor is needed to develop an application programming interface (API) between the metering reading software and the billing software. This alone will address many of the issues that have been plaguing the billing department.
Policy Development—Billing, collection, and shutoff policies are not clearly articulated in a billing policy for the City. Clear policies and procedures for utility billing should be documented and updated on a regular basis. Such policies will allow for better 1021
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succession planning as well as clear articulation of the billing processes, late notices, cutoff rules for non-payment, and resources for low-income customers. This should lead to consistent actions and messages to the community and help repair the current lack of faith by customers.
Threats
Loss of Credibility with Customers—The billing issues have created significant and ongoing issues with customers on the City’s inability to produce and bill an accurate utility bill. Based on calls and emails to the City, phone complaints, and social media posts the City has suffered a significant loss of confidence from City utility bill payers. This could have lasting effects on the City’s relationship with its residents. This is important as the City needs to pursue options for improving the City’s long term fiscal picture.
Continued View of Utility Billing as Ancillary Activity—The City has not put the staffing or resources in place to ensure high service levels in utility billing. The billing department is responsible for bringing in approximately $58 million of revenue (FY22-23 budget) out of a total City-wide revenue budget of $104 million. The lack of investment in the utility billing process and staffing has created a significant financial challenge for the City. The cost of the billing department is funded by the utility customers and, therefore, should not be a low priority for the City.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE (policy)
Address The Software Issues (and IT Staff Support) That Led to the Current Billing Crisis—The recent billing crisis is a function of attempts at software changes without a best practice such as having an IT led comprehensive and integrated approach. Currently the utility billing function is using an old version of the NaviLine Customer Information System (CIS) and is not fully connected to the Electric meter reading software.
Additionally, there are no staff members that are expert on the CIS software or integration issues with the meter-reading software. The City should upgrade to the latest CIS version and create APIs between the meter-reading and CIS programs, when the City is ready with the proper resources.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE
Do In-Depth Evaluation of the City’s Utility Billing Function and Tools—The utility billing function is responsible for billing and collecting over half of the City’s budget each year.
When not working properly the lack of utility collections threatens the entire City’s financial health. The current utility billing system, tools, and policies and procedures should be independently evaluated and updated to ensure continuous billing and revenue collection on behalf of the utilities.
1022
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POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE
Elevate the Utility Billing Function Within Finance—The utility billing function needs to be elevated within the Finance department. This elevation should include a managementlevel staff member overseeing the billing function to elevate billing issues up to the Finance Director and beyond when issues occur. Furthermore, the billing function should include all aspects of the billing process, including meter-reading and software integration. 1023
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POLICE DEPARTMENT
SWOTs
Strengths
A Dedicated Team—The Police Department has a core of dedicated and hardworking staff that display teamwork/collaboration, the ability to adapt under resource constraints, commitment to community relationships, and positive interpersonal relationships in many areas of the department.
Timely Response to Calls For Service—The Department classifies calls for service into (5) primary categories: Priority 1 is for imminent and severe threat to life; Priority 2 is for urgent calls, the severe threat to life has passed but suspects may be still around; Priorities 3-5 is for lower priority calls but impact resident’s sense of community service.
Given our staffing challenges, these response times are relatively good but could improve with more filled positions.
• The data say that our response to these calls are as follows: Priority 1 calls— 07:14, Priority 2 calls are 12:04 minutes and Priority 3-5 calls are 17:50 minutes.
Response times can be affected by our level of vacant positions, speed of employee recruitments, and our ability to retain staff. By focusing on department weaknesses listed below, we can greatly improve response times and overall service provided to the community.
Weaknesses
Need For An Improved Departmental Culture—While the core of the department is positive, due to the turnover of management and other visible past personnel decisions, some perceive we can improve in the following areas: accountability, fairness, communication, equity in treatment, consistent and strong leadership, and clear departmental direction. This backdrop makes it more difficult for recruitment, retention, and promotional processes.
Turnover, Vacancies and Morale Issues—Vacancies, recruitment challenges and morale create a difficult “stew” to overcome in providing proactive Community Policing to address crime in general and reinforce Banning residents sense of safety.
Crime Rates—According to the FBI's 2019 Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data, the national average violent crime rate was 366.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, and the property crime rate was 2,109.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. In comparison, California's average violent 1024
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crime rate was 499.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, and the property crime rate was 2,138.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. For the City of Banning, the violent crime rate is 5.0 per 1,000 residents and the property crime rate is 17.0 per 1,000 residents. To properly compare these data, we have created the following conversion table:
National California Banning
Violent Crime 3.7/1,000 5.0/1,000 5.0/1,000
Property Crime 21.1/1,000 21.4/1,000 17.0/1,000
Comparing Banning's reported incidents to these rates, Banning appears in line with the California average, but higher (as is the state) than the National average by 35%. It is difficult to compare Property Crime rates given Banning’s reporting requirements are dissimilar to California and the nation. One can argue whether Banning’s crime rates are a Strength or Weakness.
Opportunities
Community Outreach—Some of the department staff is motivated to engage the community in an expanded and more meaningful way through a stronger social media presence. This would involve enhancing information sharing and two-way staff/public engagement. Other efforts like open houses, “Coffee with the Chief” events, can be implemented to further community engagement. This is all part of lessening the real or perceived barrier between the residents and their Police staff.
Threats
Homelessness and Gangs—Both of these issues impact quality of life and eventually crime levels in Banning. Our largest category of Calls-for-Service is related to the homelessness issue. This activity, which is more acute than other cities, takes our staff away from other Community Policing activities in Banning. With respect to gangs, while it hasn’t been a substantial problem, if not managed, it can metastasize into a crime problem.
Extremely Large Insurance Payouts for Employment Claims—The department has been the source for very large payouts related to employment claims. This sends the wrong message to the City workforce and especially Police staff. This is a trend that is hard to stop, and it threatens the overall finances of the City.
Employee Turnover—The department has been wrestling with a high vacancy factor due to turnover—newer employees leaving for other Police departments shortly after arriving in Banning. And the other cause may be attributable to the negative departmental culture mentioned above. At this writing, the department had 7 vacancies plus 5 staff out on leave (e.g. medical leave). This equates to a roughly 30% vacancy factor, an extreme situation. It 1025
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should be noted the department is close to filling many of these vacancies. This has the secondary impact of causing stress on the current employees coming to work (overtime) and having to backfill for the vacancies. It also pushes the department into taking risks by taking on transfers from other Police departments to fill positions.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE (policy)
In Conjunction With the City Manager and Human Resources, Develop and Implement a Proactive Outreach and Hiring Program--To eliminate vacancies and stay at full strength. Consider hiring bonuses and other strategies to compete in a very competitive labor market and retain the new hires. While the department is in process of more hiring, it’ll be just a matter of time where past trends play out and newer hires will leave for other departments. The City needs to address this systemic threat with new “out of the box” ideas.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE (policy)
Provide One-Time Resources For A Departmental Assessment--To independently evaluate the Police Department’s culture, and develop and implement strategies (for the Chief) to provide consistent expectations on performance and norms from the Chief and down throughout the department. In conjunction with Human Resources and the City Attorney’s Office, this assessment should also review past and current claims to see if there are lessons learned for the department and City management.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE (policy)
Provide One-Time Resources to Develop a Community Outreach Program--Using best practices in social media, open houses, “Coffee with the Chief” etc. 1026
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PUBLIC WORKS—ELECTRICAL UTILITY
SWOTs
Strengths
Stable Workforce and Responsiveness to Customers—The Banning Electric Utility (BEU) workforce has many long-term City employees with the necessary experience in understanding the complexities of a city-owned electric system. Many of the staff are City residents and take pride in their service to the community with quick response to outages (e.g., 5-10 min.) response during normal business hours and maximum of 45 min. after hours.
Rare Local Control for Electricity—Local control and governance of the utility by the Banning City Council allows for the electric utility to have enhanced regulatory oversight locally instead of with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
Near-term Capacity for Growth—Banning’s electric capacity can accommodate the City’s future development and growth in the short-term (up to the next 4-5 years), given known development patterns to date. This speeds any planned development projects in the City avoiding potential stalling or delays from a more arms-length utility.
Growing Climate Friendly Power—BEU continues to exceed the State’s renewable energy requirements with 62% of its resource portfolio recognized as renewable energy and another 2% recognized as greenhouse gas free energy. BEU will continue to conduct its electric operations while trying not to add harm to the environment.
High Reliability During Fires—BEU does not implement any Public Safety Power Shutoff to our residents and businesses during high wind scenarios, thus maintaining a better System Reliability index (SAIFI and SAIDI) rating than others.
Competitive Rates—Even with a pending electric rate increases, BEU rates will still be below Southern California Edison (SCE).
Weaknesses
Utility Billing Impacts—The City’s Utility Billing crisis affects everyone at electric operations because to the residents and businesses, they are not able to distinguish which department is responsible for City utility billing functions. This has hurt BEU’s reputation.
Internal Business Processes Need Balance—Sometimes the City’s internal business processes compete with efficiency needs of the utility. BEU understands the need to find the balance between the higher accountability standards of government with the efficiency 1027
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needs of service delivery. However, in emergency cases the balance needs to swing towards efficiency and risk management. For example, a recent emergency purchase that was needed immediately for safety/risk management purposes was delayed by Purchasing for 2 weeks.
Negative Impacts from Poor BEU Fiscal Management—Due to poor fiscal management in BEU, the near-term financial stability of utility and fiscal sustainability has required the Council to increase its rates in a more aggressive manner than has been conducted in the past. This too impacts BEU’s reputation.
BEU’s Poor Credit Rating—BEU’s credit bond rating of B+ has led to consecutive downgrades by bond rating agencies leading to “junk” bond status. This may cause additional risks for the utility and its power supply counterparties willing to conduct business with BEU or higher interest rates for future purchases.
Outdated Tools—BEU equipment, vehicles, technology and software systems are becoming dated and less efficient.
BEU Staff’s Poor Fiscal Management—The lack of knowledge and clarity on the financial aspects of the utility, including the sharing of responsibility of and partnership with our Finance Department is improving but more work is needed.
Need to Improve the BEU Culture—Communication and teamwork both internally and externally beyond the department has room for improvement. The BEU management and staff have acknowledged this, recognizing more work needs to be done to improve the departmental culture.
Opportunities
Investment in Software and People Who Use it—Software technology advancement (both Enterprise and Utility Customer Information Systems) could lead to significant modern improvements in day-to-day operations, improve internal process and customer service to both internal staff and external residents and businesses.
Cannabis—Embracing cannabis cultivation in the City’s industrial areas could provide significant revenue opportunities for BEU/City. An example of a legally operating cultivation business could provide upwards of $250,000 of electric revenue annually.
Interstate 10 As an Asset—Given the City’s proximity to Interstate 10 and the potential for electrical semi-truck development; Banning is well positioned for a truck-stop electrification site. This could be a substantial revenue source for the BEU. 1028
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Threats
Not Losing Site of Capital Needs—As a result of BEU’s near term financial instability, deferred capital expenditures of operations and maintenance of existing infrastructure could lead to reliability and wildfire mitigation improvement delays. This must be properly monitored.
The Inefficient Utility Billing System—The City’s Utility Billing function has greatly reduced customer confidence in their work product (i.e., monthly bills in the eyes of our customers due to the unsuccessful roll out of a new system). To mitigate the damage and resolve the problem, the City fell back to the old system, which is manually intensive, extremely inefficient and late. This is affecting our image with customers.
Limited Consensus of Direction—Due to management staff turnover at all levels citywide and BEU, there needs to be more consensus for next steps and direction for the City and the utility.
Long-Term Planning for Electricity—While Banning’s electric capacity can accommodate the City’s expected 4–5-year growth, future expansion capacity beyond that will be reliant on BEU’s Edison Transmission Interconnection and its Wholesale Distribution Access Tariff. This important agreement will provide for the additional capacity needed for development projects beyond the 5-year increment.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE (policy)
Achieve BEU Fiscal Solvency And Sustainability—The Council has seen the plan to achieve this goal which requires adherence to rate increases over the next five years.
However, this also requires collaboration with the City Manager, BEU management and Finance to monitor expenditures, revenues, the Utility Billing function, and fiscal strategies to fund capital needs. There should be an annual review comparing actual results to the original financial model, and adjustment should be made accordingly. After a few years, BEU may consider seeking a bond rating upgrade and entering the bond market to fund capital needs and related bond rating upgrade.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE (policy)
Complete Edison’s Wholesale Distribution Access Tariff agreement—This should take (1-2years) which increases BEU’s capacity for long-term growth and its related load.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE (policy)
In Conjunction with IT, Purchase and Roll Out a New Utility Billing system—This requires the identification and purchase of a new Finance Enterprise Resource Planning 1029
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(ERP) system for the entire City including a Utility Billing module (see the Finance—IT discussion on this).
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INITIATIVE (policy)
As The Utility Becomes Solvent, Ramp Up Capital Needs—Upon reaching utility solvency, ramp up deferred Electric capital needs, striking the balance between use of cash and borrowing.
1030
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PW—WATER UTILITY
SWOTs
The Water and Wastewater utilities are managed by one division within Public Works. Thus, proposed goals are addressed after the discussion of the two utilities’ SWOTS.
Strengths
Locally Controlled High-Quality Groundwater Supply—This reduces reliance on imported water and provides stability for long-term planning. We have a large amount of stored water available for contingencies (the Beaumont Basin).
Skilled Operators—We have a strong team operating and maintaining approximately 165 miles of water pipelines, 21 wells, 8 reservoirs, and strong regulatory compliance history.
Ability to Move Water—It’s an important role moving water from one pressure zone to another via gravity in fire flow and operational emergencies and electrical outages.
Our Own Strategic Plan—We are following our 2018 Integrated Master Plan (IMP) covering Water, Wastewater and Recycled Water systems which provides a strategic road map for City’s utilities infrastructure planning and upgrades through year 2040.
Good Working Regional Relationships—With regional partners (e.g., San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency (SGPWA), a State Water Contractor), leading to imported water storage; and the neighboring Beaumont Cherry Valley Water District (BCVWD) leading to robust delivery system via interagency water “interconnects”.
Robust Fire Hydrant Flushing Program—This involves exercising and flushing over 2,000 fire hydrants annually for water quality and fire protection purposes.
Weaknesses
Aging Infrastructure—Resulting in approximately 5-6 leaks per month requiring water service lateral and/or water-main repairs, service disruption, higher maintenances costs, and the need for small diameter pipeline replacements to increase fire flow for public safety. Approximately 21 miles (roughly 13 percent of the system) of small diameter pipelines exists ranging between 2 and 4-inches.
Increasing Reliance on Imported Water—As City nears buildout, there will be an increasing exposure to supply uncertainties, drought restrictions, and cost volatility. 1031
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City’s Limited Ability to Raise Rates—Given our disadvantaged community with a limited capacity to handle high water rates and the myriad infrastructure and operational needs, there is a funding ceiling challenge for the utility.
Outdated Supervisory Controls and Data Acquisition (SCADA)—This is a computerized industrial control system that monitors and controls processes across the entire water system with a lack of asset management technology in system monitoring.
Limited Technical and Administrative Staff—This includes engineers, analysts, conservation specialist and distribution/production staff members. It reduces the division’s ability to manage projects, implement conservation programs, and plan and implement future regulatory or operational demands. This is due to budget constraints and inability to attract and keep qualified staff.
Upcoming Regulatory Requirements—Such as Hexavalent Chromium treatment will require advanced operator training and licensing (which currently cannot be obtained by current staff unless the City implements a “pilot-plant” project), exposing a gap in staff readiness that needs to be addressed.
Opportunities
Grants Are Available—To pursue for offsetting capital project costs to the City and accelerate necessary infrastructure upgrades without overburdening rate payers. The City’s Disadvantage Community status often provides an advantage for receiving grant funds.
Implement Leak Detection Technology—Avoiding leaks improves water conservation, minimizes unscheduled service disruptions, and reduces non-revenue water losses.
Promote Water Conservation—Through public education to potentially reduce long-term water demand trends and build stronger community support for the division’s programs.
Threats
Newer and Stricter Regulatory Mandates—Such as lowering maximum contaminant levels (e.g., Chromium-6) will require costly treatment upgrades, placing financial and operational burden on the utility.
Future Reliance on Imported Water—Due to the City growing, it may expose the City to potential water shortages, state-wide drought restrictions, and higher costs.
Drought Conditions and Mandated Conservation—May limit water availability, which in turn could reduce consumption and impact revenue stability. 1032
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Deferred CIP Implementation—This tends to increase long-term costs and service disruptions, as infrastructure deficiencies worsen, and repairs become more frequent. 1033
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PW—WASTEWATER UTILITY
SWOTs
Strengths
Effective Compliance With the Current Wastewater Discharge Permit Requirements— This is occurring through our planning and implementing wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) upgrades to address future regulatory requirements. This includes impending regional water quality control board’s (RWQCB) discharge limits of Nitrogen. We also need to generate Title 22 compliant tertiary treated recycled water for landscape and irrigation purposes to offset demand from the potable water system and diversify City’s water resources portfolio. These are to be addressed with the planned completion of a new WWTP.
Strong In-House Ability—To inspect, clean and maintain sewer lift stations and sewermains; reduce the risk of sanitary sewer overflows; rapid response to issues; and we can do it cheaper than outsourcing.
Good Working Relationships with Regional Partners—Enhances the City’s ability to address wastewater challenges, leverage resources.
Weaknesses
Approaching Wastewater Treatment Capacity Limits—This is due to the increased rate of development and the existing treatment plant’s inability to remove higher amounts of nitrogen; hence the need for WWTP upgrades.
Lack of Peak Wet-Weather Wastewater Storage—Due to inflow and infiltration from stormwater into sewer collection system; hence the need for an equalization basin (storage basin).
Aging Infrastructure—And the need for replacements and/or rehabilitation of manholes, pipelines and pumps which if left unaddressed, will lead to increased maintenance costs and risk of infrastructure failure.
Bottlenecks and Hydraulic Capacity Deficiencies—Within sewer-mains resulting in sanitary sewer overflows etc.
Opportunities
Grant Funding—Reflects opportunities to carry out recycled water and wastewater system improvements that enhance its reliability.
1034
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Prioritize and Implement Targeted Improvements—Within the wastewater system as identified in the Sewer System Management Plan (SSMP).
Explore the Possibility of Producing/Reusing Biogas—Which is often produced by the wastewater treatment processes to reduce operational costs and improve sustainability.
Use Recycled Water—Convert Sun Lakes Country Club’s golf course and additional parks to utilize recycled water soon (upon completion of the WWTP upgrades). This improves our conservation rates for potable water.
WWTP Has Capacity to Add Solar Power—There is land available to add solar power to assist in meeting the needs of the facility operations.
Threats
Ever Increasing Environmental Regulations—Affecting wastewater treatment and discharge requirements which could require costly plant upgrades (like the current planned WWTP upgrades in progress for Nitrogen removal) and place additional financial strain on the ratepayers.
Risk of Sewer Overflows—And associated liabilities due to aging system and bottlenecks, which can be reduced by implementing capital improvements and best practices.
High Cost of Treatment Facility Upgrades—Requiring careful planning and potential rate adjustments.
WATER & WASTEWATER
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE (policy)
Complete Wastewater Treatment Plant Recycled Water Upgrades—Complete design and construction of the new WWTP to meet nitrogen discharge limits and produce tertiary recycled water for irrigation, reducing potable demand and diversifying water supplies.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE (policy)
Hexavalent Chromium Compliance Plan Implementation—Implement a Hexavalent Chromium (Cr6) Compliance Plan to meet the new 10 ppb MCL, using treatment and nontreatment measures, with full compliance anticipated by 2032. 1035
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POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE (policy)
Develop and Implement Water Conservation Program— Develop and implement a State-mandated Water Conservation Program to ensure reliable supplies, comply with mandates, and promote efficiency through outreach, incentives, and usage monitoring.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INITIATIVE (policy)
Update Integrated Master Plan (IMP) and Evaluate Water/Wastewater Financial Rate Structure—Update the 2018 Infrastructure Master Plan (IMP) for Water, Wastewater, and Recycled Water systems to guide future utility upgrades, and review the current rate structure to ensure it supports the IMP’s capital needs. Any discussion of rates should clearly include capital and operating needs over multiple years, the possible use of debt financing vs. use of cash, expected annual fund liquidity, etc. There should be an annual review that compares yearly actuals vs. the underlying finance model assumptions.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 5 INITIATIVE
Replacement of Small Diameter Pipelines and New Potable Wells—Replace aging, small-diameter, leak-prone watermains to reduce water loss, minimize costly repairs, and improve fire flow capacity, and develop new potable wells to enhance system reliability and accommodate future development.
1036
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PW—BUILDING MAINTENANCE
SWOTs
Strengths
Familiarity With Assets—The team has strong familiarity with city-owned assets and experience in providing services them. They are aware of the problem areas within facilities and the services or vendors necessary to complete repairs.
Responsiveness—The team is responsive to City facility needs and requests from city staff when issues are brought up and can effectively triage requests.
Cooperating Ethos—There is strong interdepartmental and internal staff cooperation if additional resources are needed to complete specific tasks.
Weaknesses
Small Team—With only 2 staff members, the team is limited in completing: medium to large scale projects (i.e., roofing maintenance, facia board replacement; facility painting and flooring upgrades, etc.); clearing backlogs of internal requests; and necessary recurring maintenance items.
Deferred Upgrades and Maintenance—Staffing and funding constraints have led to deferred upgrades to HVAC, roofing, and ADA compliance.
Robust Preventative Maintenance Plans Don’t Exist—Facility Condition Assessments and preventative maintenance plans have not been established for all recurring tasks completed by the department. This would assist in advance scheduling of resources and conducting necessary work to extend the lifespan of City assets.
Rigid Insurance Requirements—Local hiring of vendors is challenging due to our large insurance requirements. When vendors are necessary, they are often further from the City and at higher costs.
Opportunities
Energy Retrofits Can Save Costs—Energy efficiency retrofits throughout the City with LED replacements, HVAC maintenance, or window tinting, replacement, or upgrades can reduce our energy costs.
Using Technology Can Help—Being able to fully integrate a Facility Condition Assessment into an asset management software to centralize requests, track useful life, 1037
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plan for capital projects, and evaluate if repair or replacement would be more cost effective.
Scaling Up with Contractors—The team can leverage contractor support for medium to large capital projects where inhouse staff is unable to complete due to lack of staff, required skill sets, or where specialized equipment is required.
Threats
Rising Costs for Materials and Services—The rising cost of construction materials and vendor labor costs are limiting factors to our ability to complete routine maintenance projects.
Age of Some Facilities—Due to the age of some facilities (i.e., Fleet Building, PW Building) and equipment, unexpected facility failures can disrupt essential city operations as there is limited space to accommodate displaced staff in other locations.
Increased Regulations—Increasing regulatory and safety compliance requirements take staff time away from maintenance tasks to comply with mandatory trainings, certifications, and reporting.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE
Complete a Facility Condition Assessment—Integrate the data into the asset management software and develop Preventative Maintenance Plans to guide future budgeting decisions and prolong useful lives of our facilities.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE (policy)
Address Deferred Maintenance Issues—Focus projects to clear deferred maintenance of key facility systems (e.g. HVAC, roofing, electrical).
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE (policy)
Evaluate Adding More Capacity For Routine Maintenance—Evaluate hiring a 3rd Maintenance Worker vs. adding contracting capacity to address more routine maintenance inhouse and maintain a low backlog of work. 1038
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PW—ENGINEERING
SWOTs
The Engineering program provides land development, stormwater and NPDES programs, traffic management, capital project development and implementation, regulatory compliance, and inspection services on City and private projects.
Strengths
Strong Multi-Disciplinary Team—The engineering staff has a broad base of knowledge and are flexible, multi-disciplined, and accountable staff that provides the required services for capital projects, stormwater programs, land development processing and review, inspections, and contract management. The department has received positive remarks from the public, developers, and other city staff for providing a high level of customer service and responsiveness.
The Capital Project Team Delivers—Projects for the community, including the Highway Safety Improvement Program roadway improvement project, water line upgrades, annual pavement maintenance programs, and the Sun Lakes Boulevard extension project.
Software Application Support—Engineering staff leads the effort in software implementation and training (internal and external) for: the SmartGov permitting system that benefits the Community Development Department; also, Cartegraph (roadway) Asset Management, and assistance with ERSI ArcGIS (geographic information system) implementation. This can be expanded to Parks and other programs.
Success in Acquiring Outside Funding—The public works team has been very successful in receiving grant awards and delivering projects. These efforts include the Downtown Revitalization Plan grant, Active Transportation Plan grant, over $30 million in grants for Sun Lakes Boulevard, $7 million in grants for the Hargrave Grade Separation Design project, HSIP safety improvement projects, and nearly $1 million in quick build grants to implement portions of the active transportation plan.
Weaknesses
Challenges in Obtaining Full Staffing Levels—Besides filling vacancies, we also need more authorized engineers and project management staff. These challenges lead to a lack of redundancy and our ability to perpetuate standard operating procedures in an absence or vacancy that arises in the department.
1039
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The Regulatory Environment is Always Changing—Staying current on the changing regulations is a challenging goal. The regulatory environments across all services (stormwater, air quality, pavement standards, etc.) with limited staff takes away time to perform other essential community services.
Purchasing and Vendor Management—With limited in-house staff, the division relies on vendors for minor projects like traffic calming, traffic signal timing, curb/ramp improvements, ADA compliance matter, and required reporting. Purchasing challenges and management of vendors reduces the benefit of contracting to complement limited staffing capacity.
Opportunities
Leveraging Other Resources—Continuing efforts to find grant and regional partnership opportunities to implement ‘Smart City” features like centrally connected and managed traffic signals.
Coordinating With Partners—Greater coordination with adjacent jurisdictions (e.g., Morongo Tribe, Beaumont, etc.) and regional partners (e.g., WRCOG, County and State), to bring regional projects and initiatives that will benefit Banning.
More Outreach—Expanding our communication to the public on various projects and our day-to-day services will improve support and understanding of our efforts.
Enhanced GIS Usage—The integration of spatial data with asset management systems provides more data driven capital programming and decisions. This helps in infrastructure planning, project reviews and developing financing options for growth.
Threats
Changing Regulations—The changing regulatory environment makes it challenging to articulate our priorities for State and Federal funding. Current state priorities for funding are not for roadway expansions. Previous federal guidance was aligned with this, which has recently changed with the new administration. When planning multi-year projects, the uncertainty presents challenges to ultimate constructability and viability of individual projects.
Long-term Population Growth Requires Proper Planning—If all potential residential development projects come to fruition, the City’s population will double, thus, new demands will be put on the department to deliver traffic safety, capital enhancements, and roadway improvements projects.
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Mandated Stormwater Requirements—The state’s requirements will require greater staff and financial resources over time that are currently unfunded by the Federal, State or County governments.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE (policy)
Update Engineering Standards and Specifications For Development—Create an engineering manual to provide guidance to developers, plan checkers, and City staff. This will provide expectations and surety for planning purposes. It will also mitigate the potential for issues due to possible staff turnover.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE
Seek Greater GIS integration with Asset Management Software (AMS)—Seek vendor assistance with integrating our GIS data with our AMS tools. This enhances our decision making.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE (policy)
Help in Implementing Newer Stormwater Requirements—The pending update for the regional stormwater program will require additional staff, vendors, and funding to ensure compliance. Minimal funding will be provided through the County Assessment District, requiring local money to backfill the remaining need.
1041
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PW—STREET MAINTENANCE
SWOTs
Strengths
Small but Mighty—While very small (3 laborers, 1 supervisor and 1 work release crew supervisor), the maintenance team is experienced, cohesive, and knowledgeable about City assets and infrastructure.
Experienced With Multiple Tasks—The team can perform cold-patch pothole repairs, replace and install signage, implement roadway striping, curb painting, and minor concrete curb and sidewalk repair.
Will to Pitch In—The team is willing to take on other tasks as assigned, such as homeless camp cleanup, assist landscape maintenance vendors, graffiti removal, assist with the Building Maintenance team, trash cleanup, bulky item day assistance, and more.
Weaknesses
Aging Equipment—The department utilizes aging equipment and vehicles that will require replacement to remain effective. They also lack specialized equipment to expand on services, such as hot-mix asphalt repair, larger concrete replacement jobs, and larger roadway striping tasks.
Limited Resources—The program is funded exclusively from Gas Tax receipts without General Fund support, leading to a deferred maintenance backlog due to limited funding and lack of staffing. This leads to staff reacting to issues, rather than addressing preventative needs.
Lack of Preventative Maintenance (PM) Plans—PM plans have not been established for all recurring tasks completed by the department. This would assist in advance scheduling of resources and/or acquiring contracted help on occasion. This lack of guidance results in staff being pulled from scheduled tasks to the hot item of the moment. This is inefficient and creates more of a backlog for preventative maintenance.
Opportunities
Seek Regional, State and Federal monies—Outside funding should be acquired for roadway improvements to lengthen the life of pavements and enhance striping through the implementation of a pavement management system.
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Work with Regional Transportation Partners (WRCOG, RCTC, etc.)—To integrate smart city technology (e.g., traffic sensors, signal coordination) to improve performance of our road system.
Acquire New Equipment and Training—To expand service ability to apply striping and implement traffic calming and active transportation signage and striping.
Move Landscape Services—To contractors thus allowing more time to maintain the right of way assets.
Threats
Rising Cost of Asphalt and Construction Materials—Is a limiting factor on the ability to complete routine maintenance projects.
Extreme Heat and Other Events like Hurricane Hillary—Leads to felled trees, damaged storm channels, and rapid occurrences of potholes and pavement damage.
Increased Traffic—From new and increasing development adds more stress to right of way assets and makes maintenance more difficult and inconvenient to the public.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE
Develop Formal Preventative Maintenance Plans—Complete preventative maintenance plans for all City owned street related assets and provide options to policy makers for funding. Adhere to the plans via regular scheduling of staff.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE (policy)
Develop a Pavement Management Plan and Policies—Complete a comprehensive inventory of roads along with their relative condition and expected life cycle e.g., Pavement Condition Indices. This would be communicated to Council along with options to fund differing performance levels or indices.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE (policy)
Seek Additional Funding—After completing the previous two goals, seek additional funding for improved performance and condition of City infrastructure, with improved costeffectiveness of maintenance efforts. This may include more staffing, contracts, and reduced backlog for repairs.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 54
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INITIATIVE (policy)
Move all Landscape Services to Contractors—This would improve the focus and effectiveness of our street maintenance crews.
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Strategic Plan - Appendix A 55
PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT
SWOTs
Strengths
Well Respected—The Banning Parks and Recreation Department is a well-respected part of the City that receives positive overall community support. From events, family recreation, youth sports, and our Senior Center, our programming offerings are well-run and well-received by the community.
Affordable Services—Banning is a disadvantaged community, and the department currently offers much of their programming at a very low price point, when compared to others.
Has a Far Reach to Many—The department offers both small and large events throughout the year at no cost. In FY 2025, over 14,000 total people were attendees at fourteen community events. Additionally, the City significantly supports the Annual Stagecoach Days event each year which has over 7,500 attendees.
Has Two Popular and Unique Amenities—The department has two unique facilities that enable amazing experiences for Banning, our Repplier Aquatic Center and Playhouse Bowl Amphitheater.
• The Aquatic Center has both a small and large water slides, not found in most public pools, as well as zero entry kids play area. The Aquatic Center had nearly 23,000 people through the door in FY 2025, including private rentals, swim lessons, classes, and open recreational swim.
• The Playhouse Bowl Amphitheater offers an outdoor amphitheater with nearly 2,000 available seats. The facility hosts the annual Playhouse Bowl Association concert series with between 6,000 and 8,000 annual attendees. The facility is also the site for movies in the park and numerous public and private events throughout each year.
Builds and Maintains Partnerships—The Department has developed and continues to have strong partnerships throughout the community. Some of these partnerships are with other agencies, non-profits, and community associations that enable the department to provide much-needed resources to our seniors. Some of our other partnerships include the Banning Unified School District, churches, and various city departments.
Senior Center—One of the great strengths of the Parks and Recreation Department is a Senior Center that operates Monday through Friday to provide connection for our seniors, 1045
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 56
to one another and to the many available and needed resources both in the local and regional community. The Senior Center provided over 9,000 daily meals in FY 2025. The Senior Center offers daily and weekly classes and monthly and seasonal events throughout the year and has well over 10,000 seniors through the door each year.
Leveraging a Small Staff—The Parks and Recreation Department’s greatest strength may be a small group of dedicated, knowledgeable, passionate, and skilled staff who are flexible and able to adapt as necessary to execute in all settings.
Weaknesses
A High Reliance on Part-Time Staff—Creates very limited opportunity for growth with our large part-time staff and such a small contingent of full-time staff. This creates insufficient opportunities for staff advancement and growth. This results in instability and turnover with the part-time staff.
Some Under-served Youth—Although the department offers a significant number of programs and events for youth, families, and seniors, it has struggled to reach the teen and under-five demographic areas with minimal success in programming and event offerings.
Departmental Facilities Are Aging—The department has some of the standard parks and recreation amenities in its parks and facilities, but many of those facilities are aging and not designed ideally for best operational practices.
Inventory of Departmental Facilities is Inadequate—The city has a substantial shortage of available parks, facilities, and programming space for its current population when compared to the National Recreation and Park’s annual Parks metrics benchmark survey.
The city currently has five baseball fields and only four lit fields. The current Little League program is at capacity without additional fields. The city does not have a soccer field and uses available turf space in several parks for its youth soccer league and youth association practices. We can use the School District facilities when available, but their space is limited, and their programs take priority on these fields.
Safety Concerns in Our Parks—With drug use, alcohol, and homelessness issues affecting normal user experiences; there are ongoing concerns with graffiti and vandalism and a perception of a lack of safety throughout our park system.
Opportunities
Update our 2010 Parks and Recreation Master Plan—The current Master Plan is outdated and does not provide a usable plan for development for either the current or future needs of the City. The number of ballfields, community centers, and gymnasiums are significantly below the benchmark numbers for similarly sized communities. The city is without some amenities altogether, such as pickleball courts, soccer or multi-use fields, 1046
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 57
and technology norms such as WIFI in public spaces and audio-visual accompaniments in our rentable facilities. There is a facility shortage today and it will increase as the City grows in population.
As Development Occurs Seek Facilities and Funding—Overall funding for the department’s operations and development is a significant concern for the future. With significant development coming to Banning in the future, the updating of our Park Development Impact Fee (DIF) associated with developments provides a potential enhanced revenue source.
Fundraising Non-Profit—A fundraising non-profit for parks, (e.g., “Friends of Banning Parks”) could be created to assist in raising money for Parks and Recreation amenities or programs.
Use of Reclaimed Water—Besides lessening the need for potable water, Parks can use reclaimed water for possible cost savings to the department.
Partnering With the School District and Police Department—we can always enhance our partnerships with the school district to provide intramural sports programming and classes directly on the school sites. We can partner with the Police Department to develop a joint program offering sports and outreach to youth and teens in the community. These programs will provide positive after school activities at a time when youth and teens are the most vulnerable to negative activities.
Mobile Recreation Program—there are opportunities to provide significant increase in our offerings by developing a mobile recreation program that we could bring to parks, neighborhoods, outside partners, and senior communities like several 55+ mobile home parks that lack recreation services and programming.
Threats
Keeping Up With Expected Population Growth—Given the current deficiencies in facilities and the expected demands due to population growth that can double over the next, say 10-15 years, the resident’s experience of our department will be greatly harmed in the future.
Increasing Cost Pressures—One example of these increasing costs is in department’s utility costs. These costs were $68,000 in FY 2023 and $320,000 in FY 2025. As the General Fund gets distressed, there is a concern that these popular departmental experiences will lose out due to competing priorities in the City.
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POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE (policy)
Complete An updated Parks and Recreation Master Plan—Develop a Master Plan of facilities and services to anticipates growth and fold its results into the City’s Capital Improvement Plan
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE (policy)
Funding the Master Plan—Including the Plan into the City CIP, development of additional funding sources for Parks and Recreation (e.g., Friends of Banning Parks, Sponsorship and partnerships, private and public grants, updating the Parks DIF, etc.).
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE
Development of Career Paths—Create opportunities in the department for entry level staff to advance, grow and be productive in the community; thus, providing stability in the staffing of the department.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INITIATIVE
Enhancing School Partnerships—Seek additional leveraging of school sites for the delivery of recreational services.
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COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
SWOTs
Strengths
Committed Staff and “One-stop Shop”—The City of Banning’s Economic and Community Development Departments are supported by a knowledgeable, collaborative staff committed to facilitating sustainable growth and long-term community revitalization.
Strong Interdepartmental Coordination—Coupled with in-house electric and water/wastewater utility resources, enables streamlined entitlement and permitting processes, making the city more responsive to developers, business owners, and housing partners as a one-stop shop for projects.
Strong Relationships—City staff also maintain strong working relationships with regional agencies and educational institutions, further enhancing Banning’s ability to align with broader economic and workforce development strategies.
Modern Goals/Policies—The City is currently updating its General Plan and zoning ordinances to ensure goals, policies and City growth aligns with community values and provides a foundation for downtown revitalization, commercial corridor improvements, and new housing projects.
Strong Outputs—The department reviews and processes a large volume of work as exemplified below:
Permits Issued
Quarter 3, 2024 276 Quarter 2, 2025 428
Quarter 4, 2024 301 Quarter 3, 2025 389
Quarter 1, 2025 312 QTD@10/17/25 97
Weaknesses
Staffing and Turnover Challenges—The Economic Development program is a team of one. The Community Development Department has a staff of 16 that is made up of City and contract staff. Only three of the 16 CDD staff have been employed with the City for longer than two years, while most of the others have been with the City for about a year or less. The turnover and limited staffing has led to gaps in institutional knowledge on processes that are required to provide an efficient operation. This staffing challenge has caused some delays in application processing and responsive customer service; and 1049
Strategic Plan - Appendix A 60
reduced capacity for proactive community outreach/awareness and staffing of the newly appointed Historic Preservation Commission.
Impaired Systems—The City faces internal limitations that often slow down momentum, such as an impaired or failed implementation of permitting and licensing systems. In both economic and community development, there is a need for modernized tools to track metrics, assess development readiness, and identify gaps in housing, infrastructure, and commercial activity. There is limited capability for GIS mapping services. Inconsistent or outdated zoning and development standards in certain areas also complicate project feasibility. Additionally, the City must balance growth with preservation of community character, which requires more robust community engagement tools and clearer policies to guide infill and redevelopment without displacing existing residents or small businesses.
Opportunities
Undeveloped/Underutilized Land—The City’s abundance of underutilized land, proximity to regional job centers, and growing interest from industrial and retail developers create an ideal environment for attracting new businesses, expanding the housing supply, and activating commercial corridors.
Established Downtown—Banning, with its established theater, retail buildings, and proximity to City Hall, presents a unique opportunity to build and expand a walkable, mixed-use hub. It can include the arts, dining, and local services for both residents and tourism, especially through the implementation of the Downtown Revitalization and Complete Streets plans. City-owned land downtown also provides a significant opportunity to drive economic and community revitalization through targeted investment and public-private partnerships.
Regional Access—Banning’s strategic location along the I-10 corridor between major Southern California markets makes it highly attractive for logistics, commercial, mixeduse, and residential development.
Higher Education—A significant internal asset is the presence of Mt. San Jacinto Community College’s Banning campus, which offers career training and educational programs that align with regional workforce needs and creates strong potential for talent development partnerships. The College offers an opportunity to serve as a partner on workforce development, career pipelines, and entrepreneurship support.
Threats
Regional Competition—For jobs, investment, and housing is a challenge without local stability and staff continuity. Additionally, nearby cities may offer more aggressive incentive programs or more fully developed commercial environments to attract growth. 1050
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Infrastructure—Potential limitations such as traffic congestion, long-term water supply, and utility capacity may require substantial investment to accommodate future long-term growth.
Outside Agency ROW/Land—Coordination with Caltrans and UPRR on necessary improvements for growth has proven to delay development and public projects.
Housing Affordability and Homelessness—Housing affordability, while currently a strength, may become a concern as demand increases, raising risks of additional strain on resources and impacts the City’s ability to attract growth and retain businesses.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 1 INITIATIVE
Streamline Permitting, Business Licensing, and Customer Service Systems— Modernize and integrate permitting, licensing, and tracking systems to reduce processing times, improve responsiveness, and enhance transparency. This requires a thorough assessment of current systems and identify gaps or outdated features. It will facilitate establishing performance benchmarks, customer service standards and better data to make decisions.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 2 INITIATIVE (policy)
Enhance Staffing Capacity, Stability, and Institutional Knowledge Retention—We need to break the turnover trend by developing retention strategies with the help of HR. And when inevitable turnover occurs, we need a transition plan to manage the potential loss of corporate memory.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 3 INITIATIVE
Explore and Implement Surge Capacity—We need to assess the potential for temporary and part-time staff or contracts with firms to support peak periods and reduce potential for burnout and turnover.
POSSIBLE PRIORITY 4 INITIATIVE (policy)
Inventory and Then Sell or Activate Underutilized Land in Downtown—In conjunction with a new Economic Development Plan (see City Manager’s Office Goal 4), inventory and seek ways to encourage development in the downtown core. This may include targeted incentives and collaboration with regional partners and developers. This will also require an active outreach program to City residents.
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CITY OF BANNING
STAFF REPORT
TO: CITY COUNCIL
FROM: Art Vela, Interim City Manager
PREPARED BY: Art Vela, Interim City Manager
MEETING DATE: February 24, 2026
SUBJECT: Discussion and Direction regarding potential modifications to the City of Banning Manual of Procedural Guidelines including, but not limited to, Section 10.3, 10.6, and 12.2
RECOMMENDATION:
Discussion and direction regarding potential modifications to the City of Banning Manual of Procedural Guidelines including, but not limited to, Section 10.3, 10.6, and 12.2.
BACKGROUND:
On December 9, 2025, under items for future agendas, Council Member Flynn requested a future agenda item to consider modifications to the City of Banning Manual of Procedural Guidelines (“Manual”) including section 10.3 related to how votes to abstain are counted.
Council Member Flynn expressed a desire to make the Manual consistent with how Rosenburg’s Rules of Order (“Rosenburg’s”) counts votes to abstain when counting the votes of those present. Under Rosenburg’s when counting the votes of those present a vote to abstain is counted as a “no” vote.
If the direction from the City Council is to modify the rules to reflect this change section 10.3 and 10.6 will be updated as directed. In addition, staff is seeking direction from the City Council to determine if there are additional modifications being proposed at this time. For example, section 12.2 of the Manual provides as follows:
12.2 Amendments
This Manual may be amended from time to time as necessary by resolution passed by a majority vote of the City Council at any regular or special meeting, provided that no such amendment shall be adopted unless at least seven days’ written notice thereof has been previously given to all Legislative Body members serving the City. Such notice shall identify the section or sections of the Manual proposed to be amended.
If there is further direction from the City Council to modify additional sections of the Manual, all modifications will be brought back for final action by the City Council at a future meeting.
JUSTIFICATION:
This item requires discussion and direction regarding potential modifications to the City of Banning Manual of Procedural Guidelines.
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FISCAL IMPACT:
Not applicable.
ALTERNATIVES:
1. Direct staff to make no changes to the Manual.
2. Direct staff to make modifications to the Manual and bring back a resolution and updated Manual that reflects the modification directed by the City Council.
3. Provide alternative direction for staff.
BUDGETED?:
No
CONTRACT/AGREEMENT:
No
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Banning Procedural Manual.Revised.Final.pn.docx
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CITY OFBANNING
MANUAL OF
PROCEDURAL
GUIDELINES
Adopted October 23, 2012, by City Council Resolution 2012-83 Amended April 23, 2013, by City Council Resolution 2013-48 Amended November 12, 2013, by City Council Resolution 2013-103 Amended May 26, 2020, by City Council Resolution 2020-67 Amended February 14, 2023, by City Council Resolution 2023-34 Amended October 8, 2024, by City Council Resolution 2024-164 1054
Table of Contents
Article 1 – Scope Of Manual ......................................................................................................................... 3 Article 2 – Meetings...................................................................................................................................... 7 Article 3 – Notice And Agenda.................................................................................................................... 10 Article 4 – Closed Sessions ......................................................................................................................... 17 Article 5 – Order Of Business...................................................................................................................... 19 Article 6– Public Comment And Presentations............................................................................................ 24 Article 7– Noticed Public Hearings ............................................................................................................. 27 Article 8 - Meeting Officers......................................................................................................................... 31 Article 9– Decorum And Order.................................................................................................................... 37 Article 10 – Parliamentary Procedures......................................................................................................... 44 Article 11- Procedures For Consideration Of Demands For Corrective Action ........................................... 49 Article 12 – Miscellaneous.......................................................................................................................... 52 1055
ARTICLE 1 – SCOPE OF MANUAL
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ARTICLE 1 – SCOPE OF MANUAL
1.1 Application of Rules
This Manual (the “Manual”) shall establish the procedures for the conduct of all meetings of Banning’s City Council, Successor Agency to the Banning Community Redevelopment Agency, Housing Authority, Utility Authority, Financing Authority and other constituent governing bodies, and commissions including, but not limited to, the Planning Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission, Youth Council, Historic Preservation Commission, and Budget and Finance Committee.
For avoidance of doubt, this Manual shall apply to all City bodies subject to the Brown Act, including all standing committees and commissions established by the City Council.
This Manual rescinds and supersedes all prior City Council resolutions setting forth rules of procedure for the conduct of meetings by City Legislative Bodies (defined below). Wherever there is a conflict between this Manual and any prior City resolution, the terms and rules in this Manual shall govern. Resolutions more specifically superseded by this Manual include, without limitation, the following:
City of Banning Resolution No. 2023-34;
City of Banning Resolution No. 2020-67;
City of Banning Resolution No. 2013-103;
City of Banning Resolution No. 2013-48;
City of Banning Resolution No. 2012-83
City of Banning Resolution No. 2004-43;
City of Banning Resolution No. 2003-06;
City of Banning Resolution No. 2000-41;
City of Banning Resolution No. 1999-31;
Banning CRA Resolution No. 2010-13; and
Banning CRA Resolution No. 1990-04.
1.2 Definitions
The following definitions shall apply to these rules and procedures:
Agenda The document that outlines topics to be discussed during a meeting.
Staff Report A document prepared by City Staff containing information and a recommendation about certain action(s) by the
Legislative Body.
Agenda Packet The agenda with accompanying staff reports for each agenda item.
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Legislative Body Any quorum of any council, board, commission or standing committee (as defined in Government Code § 54952), or
other governing body of the City of Banning that is subject to the Brown Act (Government Code § 54950 et seq.). This includes the Banning City Council, Banning Successor
Agency to the former Redevelopment Agency, Banning
Housing Authority Board, Banning Utility Authority,
Banning Financing Authority, Planning Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission, Youth Council, Historic
Preservation Commission, and Budget and Finance
Committee, and any standing committee subject to the
Brown Act. The term “Legislative Body” does not include Non-Governing Bodies, as defined below.
Presiding Officer The Chairperson of the Legislative Body. For example, this refers to the Mayor when read in the context of the City Council, the Board Chair in the cases of the Successor
Agency to the Redevelopment Agency and/or the Housing
Authority, and the Chair of any Commission.
Vice Chair The vice chairperson to the Presiding Officer. For example, the Vice Chair means the Mayor Pro Tem in the case of the City Council, the Vice Chairperson in the cases of the
Successor Agency to the former Redevelopment Agency
and/or Housing Authority, and the Vice Chairperson of any Commission.
Clerk/Secretary The person responsible for taking and maintaining the record of proceedings for all meetings, preparation of
agendas, calendar clerk, and custodian of rules, resolutions, ordinances and Legislative Body records. For example, the Clerk/Secretary refers to the Administrative City Clerk in the case of the City and the Agency Secretary in the cases of the Successor Agency to the former Redevelopment Agency and/or the Housing Authority.
General Counsel The legal advisor to the Legislative Body, such as the City Attorney in the case of a City Council meeting, or Agency Counsel in the cases of the Successor Agency to the former Redevelopment Agency and/or Housing Authority.
City Manager The Chief Executive Officer of the City, the Successor Agency to the former Redevelopment Agency, Housing
Authority, Financing Authority and Banning Utility
Authority. The City Manager may serve as the Secretary to the Successor Agency or Housing Authority, and the City Manager can designate appropriate staff to serve as the Clerk/Secretary to any Commission of the City.
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Non-Governing Bodies Wholly advisory committees and bodies that are not subject to the provisions of the Brown Act.
Sub-Legislative Bodies Such advisory committees which are subject to the Brown Act but are not “governing” Legislative Bodies.
Adjourned Meeting A meeting that is the continuation of a regular or special meeting which deals with unfinished business of the regular or special meeting.
These rules and procedures are enacted pursuant to authority granted by Government Code Sections 36813 and 54954. The purpose of this Manual is to provide procedures for Legislative Bodies that are consistent with the Brown Act and also to establish procedures that are convenient for the public and contribute to the orderly conduct of any Legislative Body’s business. The procedures herein are in addition to, and not in place of, Rosenberg’s Rules of Order, attached hereto as Exhibit “A,” and any applicable ordinances and statutes. Rosenberg’s Rules of Order are to be used as a guideline for the Legislative Body and such use is not intended to be rigidly binding and only serves as a recommendation. Rosenberg’s Rules of Order are intended to provide for constructive and efficient conduct of meetings. In the event of conflict between this Manual and applicable ordinances or statutes, the latter shall govern. In the event that any state statute referenced herein is renumbered, the reference herein shall be deemed to refer to the successor statute dealing with the same subject matter. If there is any conflict between Rosenberg’s Rules of Order and this Manual, the provisions of this Manual shall govern. 1059
ARTICLE 2 – MEETINGS
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ARTICLE 2 – MEETINGS
2.1 General Guidelines for Conduct of Board Meetings – Rosenberg’s Rules of Order
All noticed meetings of Brown Act bodies are conducted using Rosenberg’s Rules of Order as a procedural guideline. Rosenberg’s Rules of Order are intended to provide for constructive and efficient conduct of meetings.
2.2 Regular Meetings
Unless otherwise specified by a resolution or ordinance applicable to a specific Legislative Body, the regular meetings of all Legislative Bodiesshall be held on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at the time designated by the Legislative Body, in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 99 East Ramsey Street, Banning, California 92220, or at such other locations as the Legislative Body may from time to time designate by resolution, in the order of adjournment, or in the notice or call of any special meeting. In the event the day of a meeting shall be a legal holiday, said meeting shall be held on the next business day.
2.3 Special Meetings
The Presiding Officer may, when he or she deems it expedient, or upon the written request of a majority of the Legislative Body, call a special meeting of the Legislative Body for the purpose of transacting the business designated in the call. The means or method for calling such special meeting shall be as set forth in the Brown Act as it now exists or may hereafter be amended. At such special meeting, no business shall be considered other than as designated in the call.
2.4 Special Emergency Meetings
A special emergency meeting may be called by the Presiding Officer or by a majority of the Legislative Body where an emergency exists:
(a) A work stoppage, terrorist act or threat, crippling disaster or other activity which severely impairs public health or safety as determined by the majority of the Legislative Body; or (b) Such other circumstance specified by State law as authorizing the conduct of an emergency meeting. Any special emergency meeting shall be called, noticed, and conducted only in accordance with the procedures set forth in State law.
2.5 Attendance
A majority of members of the Legislative Body shall constitute a quorum. Less than a majority may adjourn from time to time and may compel the attendance of absent members. Except for City Council, any member who fails to attend any of the meetings of the Legislative Body for 60 consecutive days, unless such absences are excused, shall surrender the office, and be deemed to have surrendered the office. An absence is “excused” in non-emergency circumstances if the member provides the Clerk/Secretary with at least forty-eight (48) hours advance written notice of the member’s intended absence. In emergency circumstances, which is limited to a physical or family medical emergency that prevents a member from attending a meeting, an absence is 1061
“excused” if the member provides written notice of the member’s intended absence as soon as possible prior to the meeting.
2.6 Workshops
The Legislative Body may meet informally in conference or “workshops” regarding concerns of the Legislative Body to interchange information, provided that all discussions and conclusions shall be informal. Such meeting shall be called in the same manner as special meetings or adjourned meetings, as applicable, and shall be subject to the Brown Act. Each notice shall indicate that an opportunity for public comment shall be provided before any matter shall be determined. When a meeting has been designated a workshop, the Legislative Body will not take any action with respect to the matter under review except with prior public notice, appearing on a properly posted agenda, of such intent to take action.
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ARTICLE 3 – NOTICE & AGENDA
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ARTICLE 3–NOTICE AND AGENDA
3.1 Notice and Agenda for Regular Meetings
For every regular Legislative Body meeting, the Clerk/Secretary, or their designee, shall post a notice of the meeting, specifying the time and place at which the meeting will be held, and an agenda containing a brief description of all the items of business to be discussed at the meeting as set forth herein. The notice and agenda may be combined in a single document.
The notice and agenda must be posted at least seventy-two (72) hours before the regular meeting in a location freely accessible to the public twenty-four (24) hours a day during the seventy-two (72) hour period and where the notice and agenda is not likely to be removed or obscured by other posted material. Specifically, the notice and agenda shall be posted at the place indicated below, and/or at such other location(s) as the Clerk/Secretary may designate:
CITY HALL LOBBY
CITY OF BANNING WEBSITE
3.2 Notice and Agenda for Special Meetings
For every special meeting, the Clerk/Secretary, or their designee, shall post a written notice specifying the time and place of the special meeting and the business to be transacted must be sent to each member of the Legislative Body (unless the member has filed a written waiver of notice with the Clerk/Secretary) and to each local newspaper of general circulation, and radio or television station that has requested such notice in writing. The notice shall serve as the agenda for the special meeting and shall contain a brief description of all the items of business to be discussed at the meeting as set forth herein.
The notice for a special meeting shall be conspicuously posted at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to the special meeting in a location that is freely accessible to the public twenty-four (24) hours a day and where the notice is not likely to be removed or obscured by other posted material. Specifically, the notice shall be posted at the place indicated below, and/or at such other location(s) as the Clerk/Secretary may designate:
CITY HALL LOBBY
CITY OF BANNING WEBSITE
3.3 Notice and Agenda for Adjourned Meetings
The Legislative Body may adjourn any regular, adjourned regular, special, or adjourned special meeting to a time and place specified in the order of adjournment. If a quorum is not present, less than a quorum may so adjourn. If all members are absent from any regular or adjourned regular meeting, the Clerk/Secretary may declare the meeting adjourned to a stated time and place and shall cause a written notice of the adjournment to be delivered personally to each member of the Legislative Body at least twenty-four (24) hours before the adjourned meeting. A copy of the order or notice of adjournment shall be conspicuously posted on or near the door of the place where the regular, adjourned regular, special, or adjourned special meeting was held, within twenty-four (24) hours after the time of adjournment. When a regular or adjourned regular 1064
meeting is adjourned as provided herein, the resulting adjourned regular meeting shall be a regular meeting for all purposes. When an order of adjournment of any meeting fails to state the hour at which the adjourned meeting isto be held, itshall be held at the hourspecified for regular meetings.
If the subsequent meeting is conducted within five (5) days of the original meeting, matters properly placed on the agenda for the original meeting may be considered at the subsequent meeting. If the subsequent meeting is more than five (5) days from the original meeting, a new agenda must be prepared and posted pursuant to Government Code Section 54954.2.
3.4 Affidavit of Posting
Immediately following the posting of the notice and agenda, the Clerk/Secretary, or their designee, shall complete an Affidavit of Posting, in a form to be developed by the Clerk/Secretary.
The Affidavit of Posting shall indicate the time of the posting, the location(s) of the posting, and shall be signed under penalty of perjury. The Clerk/Secretary shall retain all such affidavits, together with a copy of each notice and agenda so posted. The affidavit, notice, and agenda shall be retained at least two (2) years subsequent to the date of posting, and pursuant to Government Code Section 34090, shall not be destroyed by the Clerk/Secretary thereafter except in accordance with the City’s record retention policies.
3.5 Preparation of Agendas
Barring insurmountable difficulties, the agenda shall ordinarily be delivered to the members of the Legislative Body on Friday (as an informal deadline) preceding the meeting to which it pertains. The agenda shall also be available to the general public at the time it is delivered to the members of the Legislative Body, or in any case as required by the Brown Act.
Any Legislative Body member may have the City Manager place any business on the agenda that should be discussed under the item of the regular meeting agenda titled “New Items.” Any Legislative Body member desiring to present a subject for the Legislative Body’s consideration shall advise the City Manager’s office of that fact not later than 12:00 noon on the Tuesday of the week preceding the meeting at which the member wishes the subject to be considered. The matter shall then be listed on the next agenda for discussion under Item 11 (New Items) of the regular meeting agenda. The Legislative Body shall then determine whether the proposed item should be a future agenda item for discussion and deliberation by consensus. The City Manager shall advise the Legislative Body member of constraints affecting staff’s ability to produce an agenda report, and when the matter should be scheduled.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the City Manager and the Mayor generally have responsibility for setting the agenda for the Legislative Body (except for any other legislative body where the responsibility may be assigned to the City Manager’s designee and the Chair of the body).
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3.6 Description of Matters
All items of business to be transacted or discussed at a meeting of the Legislative Body, shall be briefly described on the agenda. The description may, but need not, set out the specific action or alternatives which will be considered by the Legislative Body, but should contain sufficient detail so that a person otherwise unaware could determine the general nature or subject matter of the item by reading the agenda. The description of closed session matters shall meet the requirements of Government Code Section 54954.2 and, where applicable, Section 54954.5.
Matters may be designated as “New Items” and listed for the sole purpose of determining if they will be on a future agenda.
3.7 Action Items
(a) Items may formally be adopted by an ordinance, a resolution, minute order, or other motion (thereafter recorded by minute entry). Technically, all three are equally as legally effective and binding but vary in the formality of respective memorialization. While most actions will be presented to the Legislative Body in a written form prior to, or at, the meeting, the Legislative Body may amend any proposed action as written by carried motion of the Legislative Body at the time of its presentation for adoption. If an action as written is amended by the Legislative Body, it shall be revised to reflect the Body’s amendments for later execution by the Presiding Officer.
(b) Besides ordinances and resolutions, action can be taken by motion and recorded as a minute order. A “minute order” denotes a Legislative Body action which is recorded simply by an item entered in the minutes of the meeting at which it was accomplished, and no separate document is made to memorialize it.
(c) As a general rule, a recorded majority of the quorum for a Legislative Body may take an action. However, for the City Council, resolutions, orders or the payment of money, and all ordinances require a recorded majority vote of the total membership of the City Council.
Some actions, such as the passage of an urgency ordinance or adoption of a resolution of necessity to condemn property, require a super-majority vote. Under the Political Reform Act of 1974, a member with a financial conflict of interest regarding a matter before the member’s board must leave the room while that matter is being discussed, heard, or acted on, so that member cannot be counted towards the quorum for that matter.
3.8 Resolutions
(a) A “resolution” is a formal action with findings taken by the Legislative Body, generally pre-prepared in writing, designated by sequential number, and reference to which shall be inscribed in the minutes and an approved copy of each resolution filed in the official book of resolutions of the Legislative Body. Resolutions are used when specifically required by law, when needed as a separate evidentiary document to demonstrate findings or to be transmitted to another governmental agency, or where the frequency of future reference back to its contents warrants a separate document (with the additional “whereas” explanatory material it often recites) to facilitate such future reference and research.
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(b) A resolution may be adopted at the same meeting it is presented. Where a resolution has been prepared in advance, the procedure shall be: motion, second, discussion, vote pursuant to methods prescribed in Article 10, and result declared. It shall not be necessary to read a resolution in full or by title except to identify it. (c) Where a resolution cannot reasonably be prepared in advance of a meeting, the Legislative Body may instruct the City Manager or the General Counsel to prepare are solution for presentation at the next Legislative Body meeting. Where urgent, a resolution may be presented verbally in motion form together with instructions for written preparation for later execution. After the resolution has been verbally stated, the voting procedure in Article 10, shall be followed.
3.9 Ordinances (City Council Only)
(a) The City Council is the only Legislative Body empowered to amend the Banning Municipal Code by adoption of ordinances.
(b) Ordinances, other than urgency ordinances, require at least two readings at different meetings held at least five days apart with the first reading considered to be introduction of the ordinance and the second adoption.
(c) A waiver of further readings requires a majority vote of the Council members present and voting. The waiver of further reading may be accomplished by one vote for all ordinances presented on the agenda of the present meeting. Government Code Section 36934. (d) The Clerk/Secretary shall prepare copies of all proposed ordinances for distribution to all members of the City Council at the meeting at which the ordinance is introduced, or at such earlier time as is expedient. Ordinances shall be numbered and kept by the Clerk/Secretary with the same formality as resolutions as described above in Section 3.8. (e) An urgency ordinance is an ordinance adopted for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety, containing a declaration of facts constituting the urgency. An urgency ordinance takes effect immediately and requires a four-fifths vote of the City Council for passage pursuant to Government Code Section 36937.
3.10 Agreements
When any agreement is to be considered by the Legislative Body, the complete agreement, if complete in form for execution, shall be made a part of the agenda package presented to the Legislative Body and shall be made available for viewing by the public within the time frames required under the Brown Act and/or the California Public Records Act (Government Code Sections 7920.000 et seq.). The Legislative Body may choose to leave the final form of the contract to the discretion of General Counsel if the Legislative Body has determined the general conditions of the contract.
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3.11 Limitation of Actions by Agenda
No action or discussion shall be taken by the Legislative Body, on any item not appearing on a posted agenda, subject only to the exceptions listed in Section 3.13 below. “Action taken” as used herein shall mean a collective decision made by a majority of the Legislative Body, a collective commitment or promise by a majority of the Legislative Body to make a positive or a negative decision, or an actual vote by a majority of the Legislative Body upon a motion, proposal, resolution, order, or ordinance.
3.12 Public Comment Period
Pursuant to Government Code Section 54954.3, every agenda posted for any meeting shall contain an item entitled “Public Comment” in order to provide for an opportunity for the public to address the Legislative Body on items of interest to the public within the Legislative Body’s subject matter jurisdiction. The public comment period should be conducted in accordance with Article
6. 3.13 Exceptions to Agenda Requirement for Action Taken The Legislative Body may take action at a meeting on an item not appearing on the agenda for that meeting only under one of the following circumstances:
(a) Upon a majority determination that an “emergency situation” exists that is either (i) a work stoppage, crippling activity, or other activity that severely impairs public health, safety, or both, or (ii) a dire crippling disaster, mass destruction, terrorist act, or threatened terrorist activity that poses peril so immediate and significant that requiring a Legislative Body to provide one-hour notice before holding an emergency meeting may endanger the public health, safety, or both. All discussion of such emergencies must be in open session. (b) Upon a determination by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the Legislative Body, or if less than two-thirds (2/3) of the Legislative Body are present by a unanimous vote of those members present, that the need to take action arose subsequent to the agenda posting. For the purposes of this subsection, the term “need to take action” shall mean those circumstances whose occurrence creates a situation which is materially different from that which existed at the time the agenda was posted, and which requires the immediate attention of the Legislative Body. The mere failure of any person to notify the Legislative Body or staff of a pre-existing situation requiring Legislative Body attention until after the time for the posting of the agenda shall not be deemed to constitute a “need to take action” hereunder. If the Legislative Body makes a determination pursuant to this subsection, the minutes of the meeting at which the determination is made shall reflect what circumstances gave rise to the “need to take action” and why the item could not be placed on the agenda.
3.14 Minutes and Recordings
(a) An account of the actions taken in all proceedings of the Legislative Body in open meetings shall be kept by the Clerk/Secretary. The Clerk/Secretary shall prepare a record of the actions taken by the Legislative Body during open meetings, which when adopted by the Legislative Body shall be the official Minutes of the meeting. Amendment of the Minutes may be 1068
made only as to factual accuracy of the actions taken and not as to a change of intent. The Minutes of the meeting shall not be verbatim but rather shall be summary minutes. Only the best and most complete available audio recording of the meeting shall constitute the official record of the Legislative Body, but the Minutes shall constitute the official record of the Legislative Body meeting where a verbatim audio record of the meeting is not available. (b) Any recording of a meeting made by or at the direction of the Legislative Body is a public record that must be retained and made available to the public in accordance with the Public Records Act. The Legislative Body must provide to the public, without charge, equipment to review the recording.
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ARTICLE 4 – CLOSED SESSIONS
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ARTICLE 4 – CLOSED SESSIONS
4.1 Generally
The Legislative Body may hold closed sessions during a regular or special meeting, or at any time otherwise authorized by law, to consider or hear any matter which it is authorized by State law to hear or consider in closed session. Public comment shall be permitted on closed session matters prior to the closed session. If a closed session is included on the agenda, the description of the item shall meet the requirements of and shall identify the statutory basis for the closed session. During closed session, the Legislative Body shall exclude all persons which it is authorized by State law to exclude from a closed session. There shall be no closed session during any special emergency meeting. Closed session may not be held regarding a matter not listed on a properly posted agenda for closed session except upon the Legislative Body first taking action to place the item on the agenda as a closed session item as permitted by law.
4.2 Persons Authorized
Persons present in the closed session shall be only those persons necessary to the discussion of the matter under consideration. All other persons shall be excused. The Council may request the Clerk/Secretary to attend closed session of the Legislative Body and may direct the Clerk/Secretary to enter into a minute book a record of any reportable decisions made at the meeting
4.3 Confidentiality
The minute book for any closed session is not a public record and shall be kept confidential and shall be available only to members of the Legislative Body or as otherwise provided by law. (Government Code § 54957.2(a).) No person attending a closed session shall publicly discuss or otherwise reveal the proceedings in the closed session unless such publication has been approved by the vote of the Legislative Body taken during the closed session or as otherwise required by law. Violation of this rule shall subject the violator to censure by the Legislative Body as provided in Section 9.5 herein.
4.4 Public Reports
Before recessing into closed session, the Presiding Officer or General Counsel shall announce that the Body is recessing into closed session and shall name each closed session topic that will be discussed in closed session.
Upon leaving closed session, the Presiding Officer or General Counsel shall report publicly any reportable actions taken on a closed session matter and, if any vote was taken, shall announce that the matter was put to a vote, the results of the vote, and how each Legislative Body member voted.
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ARTICLE 5 – ORDER OF BUSINESS
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ARTICLE 5 – ORDER OF BUSINESS
5.1 Order of Business
The order of business of each meeting shall be as contained in the agenda prepared by the Clerk/Secretary unless the majority of the Legislative Body members consent to take items out of order. The order of business at meetings of the Legislative Body may be as follows, in accordance with the procedures specified below:
1. Call Meeting to Order.
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Roll Call
2. Agenda Approval.
3. Presentations.
4. Closed Session Report, if applicable.
5. Public Comments, Correspondence, Appointments, and Reports.
6. Consent Items. (See Section 5.3 below.)
7. Public Hearings.
8. Reports of Officers.
9. Discussion Items.
10. Announcements from Legislative Body Members.
11. Items for Future Agendas (New Items; Existing Items).
12. Adjournment.
5.2 Call to Order
The meeting of the Legislative Body shall be called to order by the Presiding Officer, or the Vice-Chair in the Presiding Officer’s absence. In the absence of both the Presiding Officer and Vice Chair, the meeting shall be called to order by the Clerk/Secretary and the three Legislative Body members presentshall elect by majority vote a Presiding Officer for that meeting.
5.3 Consent Items
Matters of a routine or generally uncontested nature and non-controversial, shall be placed on the agenda as Consent Items and may be approved by the Legislative Body in a single motion by adoption of the Consent Calendar. Matters of a routine or generally uncontested nature and non-controversial may include a matter where the City Manager believes (i) the matter would most likely be unanimously approved by the Legislative Body, or (ii) there is not likely to be public comment on the matter, or (iii) a public presentation of the matter would not be particularly beneficial to the community or public interest. The approval of the Consent Calendar shall signify the approval of each matter or recommendation included therein. All matters on the Consent Calendar shall be the subject to public comment procedures in Article 6. Upon the request of any member of the Legislative Body or upon the request of a member of the public made through the Presiding Officer, a matter may be removed from the Consent Calendar for separate discussion and/or action. Any such item shall be considered as part of the Excluded Consent Calendar. Each matter proposed for consideration as part of the Consent Items, including any recommended action, shall be described on the notice and agenda posted for the meeting. Ordinances shall not be 1073
placed on the Consent Calendar for approval unless the ordinance has first been read or the reading of the ordinance has been waived as required by law.
5.4 City Representatives and Advisory Bodies (City Council Only) (a) From time to time the Council may be required to assign a representative of the City to non-City boards, commissions, or organizations (e.g., boards or commissions of another agency or joint powers authority). Except as otherwise required by law or by the policies of the non-City organization, the Mayor shall make all such appointments of City representatives on non-City organizations after consultation with the City Council. Council appointments to non-City organizations shall be considered and made with the goal of keeping the appointee in the organization for a long enough period of time that the appointee may gain seniority and/or a position of leadership within the organization. This goal shall be construed to mean that the same appointee should remain within a non-City organization for at least two years where reasonably possible and convenient for said appointee. Nothing herein, however, shall be construed to limit or waive the City Council’s power to remove appointees pursuant to subsection (c) below. (b) The City Council shall have the power to establish advisory committees, commissions, other Legislative Bodies and Non-Governing Bodies. Any committee which is (i) established by ordinance, resolution, or other formal action, (ii) has a fixed regular meeting schedule, (iii) has continuing subject matter jurisdiction over a non-temporary issue, (iv) which continues to conduct business in excess of 180 days, or (v) has a majority membership of officials from other Legislative Bodies, shall be subject to the provisions of the Brown Act.
Advisory bodies and committees may take the following form:
i) The Council may, as the need arises, authorize the appointment of “ad hoc” Council committees composed of two members. Except where otherwise specifically provided by law, the Presiding Officer shall appoint the members of the Council committees, subject to the approval of the Council. Any committee so created shall cease to exist upon the accomplishment of the special purpose for which it was created or when abolished by a majority vote of the Council. ii) The Council may, subject to the Brown Act, create other committees, boards, and commissions, whether Legislative Bodies or Non-Governing Bodies, to assist in the conduct and operation of the City government with such jurisdiction and duties as the Council may specify. Except as otherwise required by law, the Mayor shall make appointments of members to such committees, boards, or commissions subject to the approval of the Council. The procedure of filling vacancies and provision of notice thereof shall be subject to the provisions of the Maddy Act (Government Code, Sections 54970-54974).
iii) Sub-Legislative Bodies, including Non-Governing Bodies, shall be responsible for reporting the Body’s activities to the City Council. The members of a SubLegislative Body or Non-Governing Body shall operate within the jurisdiction established by the Council and shall not have authority to make subcommittees unless specifically granted such authority by action of the City Council. Staff members may be assigned to assist any Councilcreated committee by the City Manager; staff members so assigned shall not be members of the committee unless specifically appointed as such by action of the Council. 1074
(c) Absent any other provision to the contrary, members of any non-City organization, or City committees, boards or commissions may be removed by the Council without cause by a majority vote of the City Council. Any member of the City Council may place the question of such removal on the agenda. Any committees, boards, or commissions so created may be abolished by a majority vote of the City Council by repeal of the enacting ordinance or resolution.
5.5 Budgets
The City Council shall have the power to approve the City budget, and each Legislative Body shall have the power to approve the budget of funds specifically apportioned to control of that Legislative Body (e.g., the Successor Agency Board shall approve the budget of the Agency and the Housing Authority Board shall approve the budget of the Authority). Approval of the budget constitutes approval of a proposed plan of expenditures and revenues. It does not constitute an authorization for expenditure. With respect to any given expenditure the applicable procedure shall be followed. Adoption of the budget does not, unless otherwise specified by resolution, constitute authorization for any specific employment class or position.
5.6 Items from Members, the City Manager, and the City Treasurer (a) There is a specific item on the agenda - “Announcements from Legislative Body Members” - for receiving general comments, announcements, and/or suggestions from members of the Legislative Body. This can be used to inform the public concerning upcoming events, report on members’ attendance at conferences and seminars, and for requests by members that staff look into specific matters. Legislative Body members shall report at this time on any conferences, seminars or other events they attended and for which they received compensation or reimbursement from the City. Such report should include the dates of attendance, and a brief description of the subject matter of topics covered at the events. These matters may not be discussed among the Legislative Body members, opined upon, or deliberated, and if they do not concern a matter on the agenda, shall be handled by the Presiding Officer according to the same procedures set out for Public Comment in Section 6.2. No action may be taken on such matters without being placed on a subsequent agenda.
(b) There is an agenda item referred to as “New Items.” Matters are listed under this item pursuant to Section 3.5 where a member has asked that the matter be scheduled for discussion of whether a future staff report should be prepared. The listing of the matter allows a discussion of whether a staff report should be prepared, or it may be held in the “Existing Items” section of the agenda to keep track of if the City Council determines that a staff report should be prepared for a future agenda.
(c) There is an agenda item referred to as “City Manager’s Report.” This may be used by the City Manager similarly to the item for members of the Legislative Body in Subsection (a) above to make announcements without separately listing the matter on the agenda, and subject to the same restriction that there may be no discussion or action on such matter. (d) There is an agenda item referred to as “City Treasurer’s Report.” The City Treasurer shall attend the meetings of the Legislative Body, unless excused. The City Treasurer may report on (i) the activities of the Budget and Finance Committee, and (ii) the duties of the City Treasurer as imposed under State law, except such duties otherwise delegated by the City Council to the City Clerk or the Administrative Services Director. 1075
(e) There is an agenda item referred to as “City Council Committee Reports.” Under this agenda item, City Council members may report on meetings of committees that City Council members are assigned to attend
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ARTICLE 6 – PUBLIC COMMENT AND PRESENTATIONS
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ARTICLE 6– PUBLIC COMMENT AND PRESENTATIONS
6.1 City Council Meeting Presentations
City Council presentations are for providing information to the Mayor and Council, City management, and the community about activities of interest and value, including activities, events and infrastructure projects relating to the City, honors and celebrations for organizations, corporations and residents which reflect their service to the Banning community, honors, and recognitions for City staff for outstanding service or commitment to the City’s mission and goals.
Please Note: This is not the appropriate time to seek funds from the City and/or endorsements from City Council or discuss politics.
All presentations are to be no more than five minutes in length, including all speakers for the group being recognized. Please see the attached “Exhibit B” for a complete copy of the Banning City Council Meeting Presentation Policy contained and incorporated as an exhibit to this Manual.
6.2 Public Comment
At the beginning of any Legislative Body meeting, the public shall be afforded the right to comment on any and all issues (not on the agenda) within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Legislative Body. Such general public comment on non-agendized issues shall be taken at the beginning of the meeting under a “Public Comments” heading. Each speaker will be limited to a maximum of three (3) minutes to provide comments on non-agendized issues. With regard to matters not on the agenda, the Legislative Body may ask questions of persons who raise new matters during the Public Comment period or otherwise. However, all Legislative Body questions must be limited to facts-only informational inquiries, and the Legislative Body may not discuss the merits, express any opinions, or ask questions that convey opinions or thought processes with respect to any non-agendized issue. The public shall also be afforded the right to comment on every item appearing on the agenda prior to the Legislative Body’s consideration of that item, as provided in Section 6.5 below.
6.3 Time Limitations
The time limit to speak for public comments is five (5) minutes during a noticed public hearing and to provide comments on all other agendized items, provided that these limits do not apply to a project applicant speaking at a public hearing pursuant to Article 7. All such time limits shall be noticed on the agenda for the meeting. Notwithstanding these time limits, the Presiding Officer has the full prerogative to maintain meeting order and decorum as provided in Section 9.1 and Article 9 generally, and the Presiding Officer may reasonably reduce the time if there are a significant number of speakers or extend time if he/she finds such extension is reasonably necessary to allow the speaker to complete his/her message without repetition or unnecessary tangents.
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6.4 Reserved
(a) Additional Procedures for Public Comment on Agenda Items. Members of the public shall have the opportunity to address the Legislative Body on each and every item listed on the agenda. Public comment on agenda items must be heard prior to the Legislative Body’s consideration/discussion of the item. Public comments on an agenda item may be heard either in combination with the Public Comment period at the start of the meeting, or at the time the Legislative Body opens the item, or both, as determined by the Legislative Body and set forth in the agenda.
(b) The purpose of the public comment period is to receive input from the public, not to create a debate between the Members and the public. Members should generally refrain from debating members of the public during the period for public comment, but if Members desire to clarify comments by members of the public, they may ask factual questions, and if necessary, should do so during the public comment period.
(c) The Presiding Officer should clearly open and close the public comment period.
After the close of the public comment period or after a motion has been made, no member of the public shall address the Legislative Body without first securing permission of the Presiding Officer. 1079
ARTICLE 7 – NOTICED PUBLIC HEARINGS
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ARTICLE 7– NOTICED PUBLIC HEARINGS
7.1 Public Hearings; Notice; Fairness
(a) Matters noticed to be heard by the Legislative Body shall commence at the time specified in the notice of hearing, or as soon thereafter as is reasonably possible, and shall continue until the same has been completed or until other disposition of the matter has been made. (b) Legislative Body members shall not overtly or implicitly promise a particular action by City staff or by any Legislative Body. Where a Legislative Body member is contacted about an issue that will be presented to any Legislative Body of the City, it is appropriate to give a brief overview of City policy, to refer to City staff for further information, or to suggest that the concern be brought to the whole Council at the hearing or Council meeting, as appropriate. (c) All public hearing notices shall be issued and published in compliance with any statutory notice requirements applicable to the particular hearing at issue and such notice shall inform interested persons of the statute of limitations to challenge the validity any action taken Legislative Body on such matter.
(d) Although every Legislative Body member has a right to their own personal opinions, Legislative Body members should by their demeanor show an ability to listen to a variety of viewpoints and demonstrate a reasonable willingness to consider all sides of an issue before them.
For quasi-adjudicative matters involving public hearings, the members of the Legislative Body shall not prejudice the matter prior to the public hearing, shall be fair and impartial, and shall decide the matter based upon the evidence and the statutorily required findings. (e) For such matters, Legislative Body members should avoid expressing an opinion or divulging their thought process until after the public hearing has been completed.
7.2 Continuance of Hearings
(a) Any hearing being held or noticed or ordered to be held by the Legislative Body may, by order or notice of continuance, be continued, or re-continued to any subsequent meeting in the manner provided for adjourned meetings.
(b) When it is the decision of the Legislative Body to continue an item, which appears on the agenda, prior to hearing any report, testimony or taking evidence on the item, the Legislative Body may make such intent known at the beginning of the meeting. At that time, the public shall be offered the opportunity to speak regarding the intent to continue the item. At the time regularly scheduled for the hearing of the item, the Legislative Body shall then take action to continue the item after again informing the public of the intent to continue the matter. No testimony or evidence shall be taken at that time unless the speaker will not be available at the continued hearing date.
When the Legislative Body has continued the public hearing on an item after its commencement, persons testifying at the first public hearing may be permitted by the Presiding Office to again address the Legislative Body on the item at the renewed hearing, provided the testimony is not redundant.
(c) Continuances of a public hearing to a date certain need not be re-noticed unless (i) the hearing has not been continued to a date certain, or (ii) has been continued three or more times and the Presiding Officer believe confusion may be created as to the time of the hearing. 1081
7.3 Conduct of Hearings
(a) When a matter for public hearing comes before the Legislative Body, the Presiding Officer shall request that staff present the staff report and any other relevant evidence, but the presentation of the staff report prior to the formal opening of the public hearing shall not prevent its consideration as evidence. Any such evidence shall be made a part of the record of the public hearing. The Presiding Officer shall permit members of the Legislative Body to ask questions of staff but should prevent expressions of opinion by members of the Legislative Body before the conduct of the hearing.
(b) The Presiding Officer shall thereafter open the public hearing and inquire if there are any persons present who desire to address the Legislative Body on the matter. Any person desiring to speak or present evidence upon being recognized, may speak or present evidence relevant to the matter being heard. Any testimony shall be truthful. (c) Members of the Legislative Body who wish to ask questions of the speakers, during the public hearing portion, may do so but should be mindful that the purpose of the public hearing is to obtain testimony and evidence from the speakers, and not to debate the merits of the matter with speakers. Members should avoid debate and expressions of personal opinion until after the close of the public hearing. Unlike public comment periods, generally there should be no response to speaker comments until after the close of the hearing. The Presiding Officer shall conduct the hearing in such a manner as to afford due process to all affected persons. (d) All persons interested in the matter being heard by the Legislative Body shall be entitled to submit written evidence or remarks, as well as other graphic evidence. All such evidence presented shall be retained by the Clerk/Secretary as part of the record. Each speaker may only speak once during the public hearing unless the Legislative Body requests additional clarification later in the process.
(e) Upon closing of the public hearing by the Presiding Officer, no additional public testimony shall be solicited or received by the Legislative Body without reopening the public hearing. If, however, the Legislative Body receives relevant new evidence after the close of the public hearing and such new evidence may impact the Legislative Body motion or vote, the Legislative Body may re-open the public hearing to obtain public comments upon such new evidence.
(f) The Presiding Officer has the prerogative to establish special rules, such as to require group spokesmen, to limit the number of speakers, to limit the total time for testimony, to allow speakers to give time to others, or otherwise control the hearing, provided that (i) speakers are treated fairly, and that (ii) any such special rules are announced in advance of their application.
The Presiding Officer always retains the prerogative to cut offspeakers who are unduly repetitious, and to permit the extension of time to speakers.
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7.4 Extra-Meeting Contacts on Matters Set for Public Hearing (a) Legislative Body members should minimize their contacts with, applicants, or other persons who will be the subject of a quasi-adjudicative public hearing matter to be heard before the Legislative Body. Legislative Body members should avoid extra-meeting contacts with persons who will be the subject of a public hearing before the Body or with advocacy groups or special interests.
(b) If a Legislative Body member is contacted directly by such person outside the meeting setting, the member shall refrain from expressing any viewpoints or thought processes to the person until after the public hearing. The Legislative Body member may explain that they are unable to express any viewpoint on the matter until all evidence has been heard in the course of a public hearing and should encourage any such person to present their position in writing or orally at the public hearing.
(c) At the commencement of the public hearing, the Legislative Body member must disclose publicly any extra-meeting contacts or discussions had which may be relevant to the decision.
(d) The limitations set forth in this Section shall not be read as preventing a Legislative Body member from inspecting a site that will be relevant to a public hearing, although such sight inspection should be disclosed on the record at the beginning of the public hearing. 1083
ARTICLE 8 – MEETING OFFICERS
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ARTICLE 8 - MEETING OFFICERS
8.1 Presiding Officer
(a) The meeting shall be presided over and chaired by the Presiding Officer, or, in the Presiding Officer’s absence, the Vice Chair. The Presiding Officer shall have the authority to rule any speaker out of order, including speakers during the public comment period if the subject raised is not within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Legislative Body, or during a public hearing if the speaker is not presenting testimony or evidence relevant to the matter which is the subject of the public hearing. The Presiding Officer shall have the responsibility for the conduct of meetings in an orderly manner and to prevent the obstruction of business, and in carrying out this responsibility shall have the authority to give the floor to any member of the Legislative Body or the public by recognizing them, to prevent the misuse of legitimate forms of motions or privileges, to take matters up out of order, to caution speakers as to disruptive behavior, and to order any persons willfully interrupting the meeting to be removed from the room, including as provided in Article 9.
(b) The Vice Chair shall generally take the place of the Presiding Officer in the absence of the Presiding Officer. In the absence of the Vice Chair, the Presiding Officer may call any other member to take his or her place as Presiding Officer; such substitution not to continue beyond adjournment.
(c) Any determination made by the Presiding Officer may be appealed by the making of a Motion to Appeal the Ruling by any other member of the Legislative Body. The Presiding Officer’s determination will stand unless a majority of the Legislative Body members vote in favor of the Motion to Appeal the Ruling, in which case the ruling of the Presiding Officer will be overridden. The Motion to Appeal the Ruling is governed by the Rosenberg’s Rules of Order attached hereto as Exhibit “A”.
8.2 Representation of Legislative Body
(a) The Mayor is the designated representative of the City and the City Council for purposes of presenting and expressing the official City position on an issue. If individual members of the Council or other Legislative Bodies are contacted by the media for a statement of official City position, the member should refer such inquiries to the Mayor. Otherwise, public or media statements by a Legislative Body member should be clearly characterized as comments upon a personal viewpoint.
(b) Members of the City Council may use official City letterhead to correspond with other public officials and with consultants, but any such correspondence shall state that the views expressed therein are personal and not the position of the City unless the City Council has officially adopted such position. No other Legislative Body may take a position officially representing the City unless authorized to do so by the City Council.
8.3 Email and Social Media Policy
(a) Members of the Legislative Body are provided with City email accounts which may be utilized for the conduct of City business, including communications with constituents. 1085
Members should be aware that all such communications may be subject to the Public Records Act (Government’ Code Section 7920.000 et seq.). The use of private email accounts for City business may also make them subject to disclosure.
(b) Members of the Legislative Body are subject to the Brown Act in the use of email and social media.
(c) Email communications may not be used to develop a collective consensus or decision on any matter. Email communications to the entire Body should be avoided but may be permitted to provide factual information, such as arranging an event, where no discussion or exchange of opinions on a matter within the jurisdiction of the Legislative Body is initiated or occurs.
(d) Members of the Legislative Body may engage in separate conversations or communications on an internet-based social media platform to answer questions, provide information to the public, or to solicit information from the public regarding a matter that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Legislative Body. A majority of the Legislative Body members shall not use any internet-based social media platform to discuss among themselves business of a specific nature that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Legislative Body.
A Legislative Body member shall not respond directly to any communication on an internet-based social media platform regarding a matter that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Legislative Body that is made, posted, or shared by any other member of the Legislative Body.
8.4 Clerk/Secretary
The Clerk/Secretary, or their deputy, shall attend all meetings of the Legislative Body unless excused and shall keep the official minutes and perform such other duties as may be requested by the Legislative Body.
8.5 City Manager
(a) The City Manager, or designee, shall attend all meetings of the Legislative Body unless excused. The City Manager may make recommendations to the Legislative Body and shall have the right to take part in all discussions of the Legislative Body but shall have no vote. The City Manager shall provide the Legislative Body with a staff report providing sufficient information to be the basis for any action by the Legislative Body at its meeting. Any officer or employee of the City, when directed by the City Manager, shall attend any meeting of the Legislative Body, and may present information relating to matters before the Legislative Body. (b) The City operates under the city manager form of government (Government Code Section 34851 et seq.). The City Manager has the power to: (i) administer the day-to-day affairs of the City; (ii) hire and fire City employees (except the City Attorney); and (iii) perform such other functions as the City Council chooses to authorize by ordinance. The City Manager shall carry out the CityCouncil’s policy direction through the day-to-day management of City functions. 1086
8.6 General Counsel
(a) The General Counsel, or deputy, shall attend all meetings of the City Council unless excused and shall upon request of any member give an opinion, either written or oral, on questions of law. The General Counsel, or deputy, shall attend all meetings of such other Legislative Bodies as directed by the City Council or City Manager. The General Counsel serves as advisory parliamentarian for the City and is available to answer questions or interpret situations according to parliamentary procedures. Final rulings on parliamentary procedure are made by the Presiding Officer, subject to the appeal of the full Legislative Body pursuant to Section 8.1 above. All ordinances and resolutions, all contracts, deeds, and easements or other legal instruments shall be approved as to form by the General Counsel. Agreements may be approved as to form by the General Counsel when exceeding purchasing ordinance and policy guidelines. In any case of ambiguity or uncertainty in the interpretation or application of this Manual to any procedure, the Presiding Officer may direct such question to the General Counsel for a ruling. (b) Any member of the Legislative Body may request from the General Counsel a legal opinion regarding any matter related to the interests of the City. Where a legal opinion involves substantial cost, the request for the opinion must first be approved by the City Manager or by a majority of the Legislative Body. The General Counsel is the legal representative of the City acting through its Legislative Body. There is a continuing legal question as to whether the General Counsel may have an attorney-client relationship with any individual member of the Legislative Body or the City staff. As a consequence, any discussion with the General Counsel which leads to the conclusion that the interests of the City are at risk must be revealed to all relevant members of the Legislative Body and the City staff by the General Counsel. The General Counsel shall not have an attorney-client relationship with individual Council members. The General Counsel is required to maintain the confidentiality of such communications from persons outside the City to the extent required or permitted by law and the code of ethics.
(c) The General Counsel has no statutory duty or authority under the Political Reform Act to provide Political Reform Act advice to any Legislative Body member but should provide advice to members when requested. However, a Legislative Body member may not rely on advice from the General Counsel to provide him or her with immunity from FPPC enforcement or prosecution. Such immunity may be obtained only through a written advice letter obtained from the FPPC, on the question in issue, by the Legislative Body member. A Legislative Body member enjoys no privilege of attorney/client confidentiality in reviewing these matters with the General Counsel. Any advice given to an individual member of a Legislative Body cannot be withheld from the rest of the City or Legislative Body. If, after receipt of an opinion of the General Counsel, the Legislative Body member wishes to participate in the decision-making process with immunity from prosecution or enforcement, the General Counsel shall assist the Legislative Body member in making direct contact with the FPPC for informal or formal advice upon which the Legislative Body member can rely.
(d) [City Council Only]. It often happens that other jurisdictions or the League of California Cities or other regional or statewide association will ask the City to participate in the filing of a letter or brief before a court in a matter deemed to be of concern to all or a great many cities. These “friend of the court” or “amicus” briefs have the effect of informing the court how widespread will be its opinion and how that opinion will affect cities. Such participation is 1087
normally without direct cost to the City. In considering whether to direct General Counsel to file an amicus brief, the City Council shall consider whether such brief would represent or propose a position that conflicts with, or causes strife amongst, other City- related interests such as, without limitation, the interests of employee organizations, law enforcement or public safety. i) Upon receipt of the request, the General Counsel shall make the request available through the City Manager to the Council. Upon a determination by any Council member that there is an interest in participating in the action in the manner proposed, the Council member shall inform the City Manager or General Counsel who shall place the matter as an item for discussion in closed session on the agenda of the next Legislative Body meeting. The General Counsel may otherwise place an amicus request on the agenda on his or her initiative. ii) In lieu of the foregoing process, where there is urgency to the matter, General Counsel is authorized to undertake the filing of the letter or brief where (i) in the opinion of General Counsel the legal matter significantly affects the interests of the City, (ii) the General Counsel has consulted with and received the approval of the City Manager, (iii) the cost to the City will not exceed $5,000, and (iv) the General Counsel makes a written report of the action to the Legislative Body.
iii) Approval given to the General Counsel to defend, or seek or refrain from seeking, appellate review or relief, or to enter as an amicus curiae in any form of litigation as the result of a closed session consultation shall be reported in open session at the public meeting during which the closed session is held. The report shall identify, if known, the adverse party or parties and the substance of the litigation. In the case of approval given to initiate or intervene in an action, the announcement need not identify the action, the defendants, or other particulars, but shall specify that the direction to initiate or intervene in an action has been given and that the action, the defendants, and the other particulars shall, once formally commenced, be disclosed to any person upon inquiry, unless to do so would jeopardize the agency’s ability to effectuate service of process on one or more unserved parties, or that to do so would jeopardize its ability to conclude existing settlement negotiations to its advantage.
8.7 Conflicts of Interest
All Legislative Body members are subject to the provisions of California Law, such as Chapter 1, Title 9, of the California Government Code, relative to conflicts of interest, and to conflicts of interest codes adopted by the Legislative Body. Any Legislative Body member prevented from voting because of a conflict of interest shall refrain from in any way participating in the matter giving rise to the conflict. Where abstention from a matter is made on the basis of a conflict of interest arising from a financial interest in the decision, the Legislative Body member shall announce their abstention from the matter when it is first opened, and then shall set forth the reason for the abstention with the degree of specificity at least equal to the disclosure of the Legislative Body member’s financial interests on the Legislative Body member’s annual statement of financial interests; immediately after such announcements, the Legislative Body member shall leave the room. The Legislative Body member shall not overhear the staff report, participate in the discussion or deliberations, and shall not otherwise make or participate in making the decision or in any way attempt to use his or her official position to influence the decision. This shall not prevent the conflicted Legislative Body member from coming before the Legislative Body solely 1088
during the public comment period as an affected citizen to state his/her opinion on how the matter impacts their disqualifying interests.
8.8 Reserved
8.9 No Financial Interest in Agreements
A member of a Legislative Body shall not have a financial interest in an agreement within the meaning of (Government Code Section 1090 et seq.) made in their official capacity. An agreement in which a Legislative Body member has a financial interest shall be null and void whether the member participates in the making of the contract or not, unless a remote or noninterest exception applies under Government Code Sections 1091 or 1091.5.
8.10 Ethical Standards
A member of a Legislative Body shall maintain the highest ethical standards and shall adhere to all laws and the ordinances and regulations of the City in carrying out their duties.
8.11 Confidential Information
No Legislative Body member may disclose confidential information to any unauthorized person. A violation of this rule shall subject the violator to censure by the Legislative Body as provided in Section 9.5 herein.
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ARTICLE 9 – DECORUM AND ORDER
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ARTICLE 9– DECORUM AND ORDER
9.1 Decorum and Order – Legislative Body Members
(a) Any member of the Legislative Body wishing to speak, or any member of the public wishing to address the Legislative Body must first obtain the floor by being recognized by the Presiding Officer. The Presiding Officer must recognize any member of the Legislative Body who seeks the floor when appropriately entitled to address the Legislative Body. The Legislative Body member shall confine himself or herself to the question under debate. (b) Any member of the Legislative Body, including the Presiding Officer, may bring a matter of business properly before the Legislative Body for decision by making a motion.
Any Legislative Body member, including the Presiding Officer, except the Legislative Body member making the motion, may second a motion. Once a motion is seconded, it may be opened for discussion and debate.
(c) The Presiding Officer shall determine all points of order, subject to the right of any member to appeal to the majority Legislative Body.
(d) A Legislative Body member, once recognized, shall not be interrupted while speaking unless called to order by the Presiding Officer, unless a Point of Order is raised by another Legislative Body member, or unless the speaker chooses to yield to questions from another Legislative Body member.
(e) Any Legislative Body member called to order while speaking shall cease speaking immediately until the question of order is determined. If ruled to be in order, the member shall be permitted to proceed. If ruled to be not in order, the member shall comply with ruling of the Presiding Officer.
(f) Legislative Body members shall accord the utmost courtesy to each other, to City or Legislative Body employees, and to the public appearing before the Legislative Body and shall refrain at all times from rude and derogatory remarks, reflections as to integrity, abusive comments, and statements as to motives and personalities, which disrupt, disturb, or otherwise impede the orderly conduct of the Legislative Body meeting.
(g) Any Legislative Body member may move to require the Presiding Officer to enforce the rules and the affirmative vote of a majority of the Legislative Body shall require the member to so act.
(h) The members of the Legislative Body shall not engage in communications during the Legislative Body meeting (including breaks) regarding matters being considered on the agenda unless and until the Legislative Body has opened that agenda item. In order to minimize exposure to a Brown Act violation, Legislative Body members are discouraged from discussing any City business during breaks or before and after meetings; City business may only be discussed by a quorum of Legislative Body members when it is opened as a duly noticed agenda item. (i) The members of the Legislative Body shall always be attentive and show respect to those addressing the Legislative Body provided that nothing shall prevent the enforcement of the 1091
rules of decorum herein.
(j) No Legislative Body member attending a meeting of another Legislative Body shall make any statement or, give the appearance or indicate in any way that they are representing the Legislative Body unless they have been authorized to do so by the Legislative Body. When making a comment at such a meeting, the Legislative Body member should make it clear that they are speaking solely as an individual. Unless officially appointed to participate on a committee, Legislative Body members should make an effort not to insert themselves into or take positions on matters which will ultimately be decided upon by the Legislative Body. (k) The Legislative Body may punish its own members for misconduct pursuant to Section 9.5.
9.2 Decorum and Order – Employees
(a) Members of administrative staff and employees of the Legislative Body shall observe the same rules of procedure and decorum applicable to Legislative Body members. The City Manager shall ensure that all staff and employees observe such decorum. Any staff members, including the City Manager, desiring to address the Legislative Body or members of the public shall first be recognized by the Presiding Officer. All remarks shall be addressed to the Presiding Officer and not to any individual Legislative Body member or member of the public. (b) Questions of City staff and/or requests for follow-up or additional background information should be directed only to the City Manager, General Counsel, Assistant City Manager, or Department Heads. The Office of the City Manager should be copied on any request, except those to the General Counsel. When in doubt about what staff contact is appropriate, Legislative Body members should ask the City Manager for direction. Materials supplied to a Legislative Body member in response to a request will be made available to all members of the Legislative Body so that all have equal access to information. (c) Legislative Body members should not solicit any type of political support (financial contributions, display of posters or lawn signs, name on support list, etc.) from City staff. City staff may, as private citizens with constitutional rights, support political candidates but all such activities must be done away from the workplace.
9.3 Decorum and Order – Public
(a) Members of the public attending Legislative Body meetings shall observe the same rules of order and decorum applicable to the Legislative Body. All remarks and questions should be addressed to the Presiding Officer and not to any individual Legislative Body member, staff member or other person.
(b) Any person conducting their public remarks or behavior before the Legislative Body in such a way as to actually cause disruption to the conduct of the meeting may be removed from the room by the sergeant-at-arms as directed by the Presiding Officer. Unauthorized remarks from the audience, stamping of feet, whistles, yells, and similar disruptive demonstrations shall not be permitted by the Presiding Officer, who may direct the sergeant-at-arms to remove such offenders from the room or call a recess of the meeting. Aggravated cases may be prosecuted on 1092
appropriate complaint signed by the Presiding Officer.
(c) Members of the public shall be allowed to video or audio record a public meeting unless such recording becomes an actual and unreasonable disruption to the Legislative Body’s ability to carry-out the meeting.
9.4 Enforcement of Decorum
(a) The Banning Police Chief or designee shall be ex-officio sergeant-at-arms of the Legislative Body. He shall carry out all orders and instructions given him by the Presiding Officer for the purpose of maintaining order and decorum in the Legislative Body meeting. Upon instructions from the Presiding Officer, it shall be the duty of the sergeant-at-arms to eject any unruly person from the Legislative Body meeting chamber or place him or her under arrest or both for conduct actually disrupting to the Legislative Body proceedings. Such person may be barred from further participation in the meeting.
(b) Generally, if the Presiding Officer intends to eject a person for disruption of a meeting, a public warning should be issued. Examples of remarks or behavior that cause actual disruption of the Legislative Body proceedings include:
Unauthorized remarks from the audience, stamping of feet, whistles, yells, outbursts, catcalls, cursing, applause, offensive or obscene gestures or similar demonstrations which disrupt, disturb, or otherwise impede the Legislative Body proceedings
Interrupting speakers or speaking when not recognized Calling members of the audience names or threatening them Extended discussion of matters beyond the jurisdiction of the Legislative Body
Physical threats to any person
Shouting into the microphone
Dumping objects on the floor of the chamber where the proceeding is held for symbolic or other reasons.
Speaking beyond the time limits
Being unduly repetitious
(c) Examples of non-disruptive conduct include:
Silent gestures by members of the audience, such as a thumbs up or thumbs down that are not otherwise disruptive of the meeting.
Catcalls or booing during a time allowed for applause that does not otherwise disrupt the meeting.
Criticisms of public officials or staff during a time reserved for public comment that does not otherwise violate this Manual and does not disrupt the meeting.
(d) As set forth in Government Code Section 54957.9, in the event that any meeting is willfully interrupted by a group or groups of persons so as to render the orderly conduct of such meeting unfeasible and order cannot be restored by the removal of individuals who are willfully 1093
interrupting the meeting, the Legislative Body members may order the meeting room cleared and continue in session. Only matters appearing on the agenda may be considered in such a session.
Duly accredited representatives of the press or other news media, except those participating in the disturbance, shall be allowed to attend any session held pursuant to this Section. Nothing in this Section shall prohibit the Legislative Body from establishing a procedure for readmitting an individual or individuals not responsible for willfully disturbing the orderly conduct of the meeting.
9.5 Censure of Legislative Body Members
(a) It shall be a violation of this section for any sitting member of a Legislative Body to violate any general law or regulation, and any, rule, law, ordinance, or resolution of the City of Banning. It shall also be a violation of this section for any sitting member of a Legislative Body to violate an administrative policy of the City which has been adopted following a vote of the Legislative Body or the City Council on the matter and which by its terms is expressly made applicable to the Legislative Body.
(b) Any violation of the foregoing paragraph by a Legislative Body member may be punished through the administration of a public censure of the member by the member’s Legislative Body. Such censure may be in addition to any other punishment applicable to the violation. For purposes of this section, “censure” shall mean the adoption of a motion setting forth a statement of disapproval of a Legislative Body member’s conduct. (c) When evaluating a request for defense made by the censured member in litigation arising from the censured conduct, the record of the censure shall be considered by the Legislative Body. Such record shall not be determinative. Failure of the Legislative Body to censure the conduct of a member does not constitute waiver of the Body’s right to refuse to defend the member in an action.
(d) A Legislative Body member may not be made the subject of a motion for censure without first being given notice of the violation and an opportunity to correct the violation if it can reasonably be corrected. Upon a continued violation or failure to correct, the charged member shall be given notice and an opportunity to be heard as follows:
(i) Only a sitting member of the Legislative Body whose member commits the violation may initiate proceedings for the censure of one of its members. (ii) Proceedings shall be commenced by the presentation of a written statement of charges to the subject Legislative Body member with a copy delivered concurrently to the Clerk/Secretary by the member initiating the charge.
Initiation shall not require the prior approval of the Legislative Body. The statement of charges shall be given at least ten (10) days prior to the meeting at which the censure motion is proposed to be brought. The notice shall contain, at a minimum, the designation of the specific rule, law regulation, etc. which the member is claimed to have violated and a statement of the date, place, and time at which the violation occurred. The statement shall further contain a description of the conduct of the member which is alleged to constitute the violation. The statement of charges shall be delivered to all 1094
other Legislative Body persons.
(iii) Within seven (7) days after delivery of the statement of charges, the charged member should deliver a written response to the other members of the Legislative Body unless the charged member chooses to defer to response to the hearing.
(e) The motion for censure shall be agendized and considered at the first regular meeting occurring ten (10) days following the delivery of the statement of changes to the member and Clerk/Secretary. The hearing may not be continued except upon the absence from the meeting of a member of the Legislative Body other than the member bringing the charge or the member who is the subject of the charge.
(i) The hearing shall be conducted in an open session by the Presiding Officer unless the Presiding Officer is a party to the action, in which case the Vice Chair or some other member shall conduct the proceedings. (ii) The hearing shall generally proceed by a reading of the charges by the charging member. The charging member may present witnesses; the charged member may answer in rebuttal; members of the public may speak in favor or opposed to the charge; and the remaining members may speak to the charges in that order.
(iii) Passage of the motion for censure shall require a majority vote of the members of the Legislative Body. The voting members shall not go into closed session for deliberation.
(f) If the motion for censure does not pass the proceedings shall be at an end. A new motion for censure on the same grounds of violation may not thereafter be commenced against the same Legislative Body member for a period of 1 calendar year from date of the vote. However, new proceedings may be commenced on the same charges within the 1-year period on the vote of 4 members of the Legislative Body.
(g) If the motion for censure does pass, such motion shall become a part of the public record a copy of which shall be made available upon demand to any member of the public and notice of same shall be placed in the administrative file of the Legislative Body member.
9.6 Persons Authorized To Be Within Platform/Dais
No person except Legislative Body officials or authorized Legislative Body staff shall be permitted behind the Legislative Body dais without permission or consent of the Presiding Officer.
9.7 Personal Privilege
If a Legislative Body member is personally offended by the remarks of another member, the offended Legislative Body member should make notes of the actual words used and call for a “point of personal privilege” that challenges the other member to justify or apologize for the language used. The Presiding Officer will maintain control of this discussion. The right of a 1095