MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
OFTHE LEMON GROVE CITY COUNCIL
3146 School Lane, Communiye CA91945
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 6:00 p.m.
Call to Order
Mayor Pro Tem Mendoza called the regular City Council meeting to order at 6:15 p.m. (The chamber audio system was out of order.)
Mayor Pro Tem Good Evening, Everyone:
Mendoza
I don't have the loudest voice in the world, but I am going to try to speak loudly. I am Jennifer Mendoza, Mayor Pro Tem for the evening.
Our Mayor is out, and I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to the first City Council meeting of the New Year. Happy New Years, Everyone! Glad to see all of your smiling faces here. Please silence your cell phones if you haven't already. City Clerk, would you please call the roll of the City Council members present.
Roll Call
Mayor Pro Tem Jennifer Mendoza, Councilmember George Gastil, Councilmember LeBaron and Councilmember Alysson Snow
Absent: Mayor Racquel Vasquez
Staff Members Present
Lydia Romero, City Manager; Kristen Steinke, City Attorney; Joel G. Pablo, City Clerk; Izzy Murguia, Public Works Director; Bill Chopyk, Special Planning Consultant; Fire Chief Bent Koch, Heartland Fire and Rescue; Lieutenant Joseph Barry, San Diego County Sheriff's Department
Pledge of Allegiance
Councilmember Gastil led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Changes to the Agenda
Mayor Pro Tem We do have some changes to the agenda, because we don't have audio. I Mendoza am going to need a vote from the Council. We are suggesting that we move Item No. 3 and Item No. 4 and the Closed Session to the next meeting.
Councilmember I so move.
Snow
Councilmember I'll second.
Gastil
Mayor Pro Tem Clerk, can you call for the vote?
Page |2 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 Action: Motion by Councilmember Snow, second by Councilmember Gastil to move Item No. 3, Item No. 4 and Closed Session to the next regularly scheduled meeting on February 6, 2024.
The motion passed by the following vote:
AYES: LeBaron, Snow, Gastil, Mendoza
NOES: None
ABSENT: Vasquez
Presentations - None
Public Comment
Mayor Pro Tem Next is general public comment.
Mendoza
During the General Public Comment portion of this meeting, the public may expres their concerny not peraining to terms on the agenta Please note that according to State Law, the City Council is not Panied ate sand any dired to expressed by the speaker, or the topic will be brought to the City Council for consideration at a future Per Lemon Grove's Municipal Code Chapter 2.14.150, "All remarks must be addressed to the City Council as a body and not to any individual council member."
Each speaker will have a maximum of three (3) minutes. When peaking, please observe the green, yellow and red light timer at th odium. The red light indicates that it is time for the next speaker t approach the podium to begin speaking.
Can I have the speaker Slips?
City Attorney Mayor Pro Tem Mendoza, I just wanted to say for the record that written Steinke bublic comments were received and they are available at the front table for public review. If they would like to review those
Mayor Pro Tem Thank you.
Mendoza
Our first speaker is Brenda Hammond.
Brenda Hammond Hi, Happy New Year! Last night, a couple of people were here in this room from the County and the District Attorney's office. They shared Page |3 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 some great information about human trafficking with the Soroptimist group.
It was very informative and interesting, and I hope they could come back for a City Council meeting presentation because I didn't see anybody here from the City Council. Thank you.
Mayor Pro Tem Next we have John L. Wood.
Mendoza
John L. Wood John L. Wood. I am one of the oldest, most regular public attendees to these meetings. I'd like to know how we can get speed under control on Central. I've requested speed bumps a multitude of times and nothing is been done. We still have the speeding, we still have the bad roads, we have the curve, and people just come around like it's nothing. They do 45,50 miles an hour and it seems like the public request improvements, they go into the circular pile.
How many times do we have to ask the City (you) to have Miller Toyota clear, clean and clear the creek. How many times do we have to tell them to trim the eucalyptus trees. Clean the creek! Completely clean the creek, that means pulling the palm trees that they just make stumps out of and they grow again. And they're like a forest of palm trees. We need them cleaned out. The City needs them cleaned out. They're a hazard. It it rains really hard, it going to be everywhere. And it's not going through the tunnel.
On May 24'h a 24 foot by 16 inch diameter branch fell onto my property it damaged one of my fence. 90% of time you can't hear eucalyptus trees, limbs falling and I was lucky. I heard a noise and I looked up from there. The tree was coming down. The branch was coming down.
Fortunately, I didn't get that far. I was about 20 feet away. But it needs to be done. And done now. Not yesterday. Now. Both the creek and the trees need to be taken care of. They're all Miller's property. Thank you.
Mayor Pro Tem Thank you. Our next speaker is Gene Gonzalez Gene Gonzales Good Evening, my name is Gene Gonzales. I work for the City of emon Grove in the sanitation/wastewater. And I'm not here to tall bout bargaining or negotiation. I am not here to bargain or negotiat So I'm going to talk about the flexible work schedule. The City has a policy about flexible work which by the way, refers to the City as a company. We see some flaws in it. And we made a proposal to address he issues, but the City Council or the City does not want to negotiat yver them or reiect them outright and so they will only use their policy Page | 4 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 They also claim since we have two people in our unit working at a desk then it isn't as big of an issue for them. We should be able to bargain with working conditions offered some of them. Each person has rights.
The next one I'm going to go over is outside employment. Again, the City does not want to bargain on this article but wants to use its outdated personnel manual. It requires all employees to submit any outside work whether it is related or not related to their work. Many employees have second or third jobs and some are sensitive to them and are concerned about what people think. I myself have a second or a third job. I've worked at the hills in La Mesa during my employment here in Lemon Grove. I also do auctions and swap meets on my spare time, on the weekends. And I do manage a used car lot in La Mesa so I'm doing a lot of things outside of my job role. And prior to me coming here I was supposed to depart... before I got some meetings. In the bargaining that they don't want to have a conflict in which our members don't make decisions about their city work and they should not have to submit it the city did not care and wanted it. If you are a babysitter tell the city, you work for IHHS provider tell the city, you work for Jack in the Box tell the city or if you work at a bar tell the city.
I could understand the staff who make decisions on contracts and employment but these are not those adults. That's all I have to say.
Thank you guys.
Mayor Pro Tem Next we have Nick Rubio
Mendoza
Nick Rubio Good Afternoon, Folks:
I'm going to continue on after my colleague there. This is continuing on grievances that we were talking about today. We proposed a counter proposal we asked for a grievance step that would take it outside the City staff if needed, if needed. In many municipalities, non-profits and even for profits. There are steps to a grievance that that are as follows.
Step One: Supervisor; Step Two: Director; Step Three: With the City Manager; and if needed Step Four: City Council or a neutral third party.
Yes, it is true but many are the same as our proposal. In fact, the law firm representing the City is negotiating our proposal on behalf of the City of San Diego agreed the with same proposal steps as ours. This is not a big city versus a small city. But a fair grievance process. And one that is flawed. There are many... there are times when the union won't ask or won't seek to go beyond the City staff most times. However, there are cases where it must like if we file a grievance against the City Manager. Who does that go to? Who do we have to report that to? Or, if we think the City Manager was unfair due to favoritism or dislikes the union for some odd reason. Who do we go? The proposal it's not about City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 Page |5
City Manager but to any city manager in general it was mentioned that the should be no hider be it hal. We think there Shoule nil ou higher power than that at all. So you guys should have final say if we have any issues you guys should be the final answer.
Mayor Pro Tem All right. And then before you sit down Mat Kostrinsky Mendoza
Mat Kostrinsky, Good Evening, I'm Mat Kostrinsky, AFSCME Local 127.
American
Federation of State, I appreciate you bearing with us. Again. We're not here to bargain or ounty negotiate. We're just here to give you updates what happened in this last lunicip bargaining session this morning. You covered 15 articles, you covered Employees Local grievances, drug and alcohol, the being flexible work schedules, outside 127 employment, probation, performance evaluations, personnel files, to political activity, anniversary dates, contracts, inside letters, rested meal periods, driver's license, vehicle insurance, nation and state emergency act and annual leave/vacation. So, I want to kind of go over. I first want to state also... is that the city's personnel manual you may not be aware of it has not been updated since March of 2012. Almost twelve years ago since it was updated before any of you on Council. Before there was... before this current City Manager, before the public works director, before the superintendent, and our entire bargaining unit. So this personnel manual has outlasted everyone and is far outdated. So after today's session, I want to point out some issues that we have with the City and you might feel that it's gone far.... too far apart from where we feel we're kind of shocked by it. So first of all, talk about probation.
We have proposal for that provision. That means a new employee that was hired two things one, it means that the employee, they do not want to allow the employee to have a grievance process like we allow all other employees here. They are allowed to have that if you wish to have it and we feel that it's important. Two, if you are on probation. So, for example, some are folks that get promoted their on probation then for another year so they've been in the city for two or three years. They then get promoted. Fantastic. Then there are probation again, and it's one year but if you are on probation after five days of being out on paid leave for one more day after that, then your probation is then stalled for every day that you're out on paid leave. And so it's an issue for us is that if I'll use Nick who was just promoted to crew leader this July. He's now on probation until July. So he takes his two weeks off because let's say he gets married. And decides one on his honeymoon for two weeks. H now has one vear and one week now that we feel that's unfair. We also feel that too. And the other one is about personal files. A lot of cities allow that after four or five years legally you can remove personal records personal file. The City is under the impression; they do not want
January 16, 2024
to remove anything from any file no matter how old it is, and whether it's truthful or not. They also believe that if we if something is put in that's inaccurate, the City would like to then be able to have the ability to maintain it in the file. We disagree with that. We hope we can get a solution on that but that is a concern for us.... allows after four years which is the law says you can then request to the City of San Diego allows that we'd like to allow that also. Thank you very much.
Mayor Pro Tem Thank you, everyone
Mendoza
Consent Calendar
Mayor Pro Tem Next, we have the Consent Calendar. I need a motion to approve.
Mendoza
Action: Motion by Councilmember Gastil, second by Councilmember Snow to approve Consent Calendar Item Nos. 1.A through 1.F
The motion passed by the following vote:
Ayes: LeBaron, Snow, Gastil, Mendoza
Noes: None
Absent: Vasquez
1.A Waive Full Text Reading of All Ordinances on the Agenda Action: Waived the full text reading of all ordinances on the published meeting agenda.
1.B City of Lemon Grove Payment Demands
Action: Ratified Demands covering November 29, 2023 through December 26,2023.
1.C Approval of City Council Minutes
Action: Approved the minutes of the Lemon Grove City Council meeting held on December 19, 2023.
1.D Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025 Action: Adopted Resolution No. 2024-01 approving the Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule (ROPS) for the period of July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.
1.E Approve State of California Department of Transportation Program Master Agreement and Program Supplement Agreements for State Funded Project No. ATPL-5418(023) and ATPL-5414(024) and Accept Grant Funding for the Connect Main Street Project Action: (1) Adopted Resolution No. 2024-3996 authorizing the City Manager to execute Master Agreement 11-5418S21 and Program Supplement Agreements with the State of California Department of Transportation; and (2) Adopted Resolution No. 2024-3997 accepting Caltrans Active Transportation Program grant funding in an amount of $489,000 and authorize the Finance Director or designee to make budget adjustments Page | 7 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 recognizing the Caltrans award of $489,000 and appropriating and transferring allocated funds to the Connect Main Street Project accounts.
1.F Accept the Amber/Cedral Place Storm Drain Emergency Repair Project (No. 2023-19) Action: Adopted Resolution No. 2024-3998 to: (1) Authorize an appropriation of $16,000 from General Fund Reserve; and (2) Accept the Amber/Cedral Place Storm Drain Emergency Repair Project (No. 2023-19).
Public Hearing(s): - None
Reports to Council
Call for Applications for Ad-Hoc Members to the Community Advisory Commission Mayor Pro Tem Next, we have item number two, which is a call for applications or ad- Mendoza hoc members to the Community Advisory Commission.
Bill Chopyk, Thank you all. I'll stand so I can project my voice.
Special Planning
Consultant Good Evening, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council. This is a request for a call for applications for up to seven ad-hoc members to the Community Advisory Commission. The purpose would be to provide guidance and input for the Downtown Specific Plan update planning process. It approved by Council we would make applications available right away with applications due on February 21st ", and then returned to Council on March 5th, with the recommendation for appointments to the Community Advisory Commission Ad Hoc Committee.
The Downtown Village Specific Plan, the City is currently operating under the 2005 Version of the Downtown Village Specific Plan. A new update to the Downtown Specific Plan was proposed in 2018 and it ended up getting denied by Council on second reading. That was in May of 2018. The City received a $300,000 SANDAG grant to update the Downtown Specific Plan. And we would like to kick this meeting off ith the Community Advisory Commission Ad-hoc Committee. We at waiting the grant agreement and notice to proceed on the SANDA grant. This would allow us to move forward with the update to th Downtown Specific Plan. This map shows... the little hard to see ir blue is the current Downtown Specific Plan Area. It covers an area of 59 acres with the expansion that the Downtown Specific Plan Update would expand would quadruple the size of the Downtown Specific Plan area. In blue is the existing Downtown Specific plan area; in yellow would be the expanded area and it would extend the Downtown Specific Plan all the way to along Broadway, all the way to Massachusetts, trom Pacific to North Avenue and then to the east would extend Broadway to the east as well. This would involve hundreds of parcels and community Page |8 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 engagement would be an important component of this process. We've got an anticipated schedule here and this may change over time as we get into it. First meeting, would be Monday night we'll take this to the Planning Commission to give them an update on the Downtown Village Specific Plan project and then continue through two or three community workshops, reviewing plan revisions, making the specific plan available on the website and keep the community engaged. This Downtown Specific Plan update would implement nine of the programs in the housing element. The City of Lemon Grove Housing Element was certified by HCD in December and we will care with this project, we would be able to implement nine (9) of the programs in the housing element. This would also have the benefit of addressing ten (10) of the Climate Action Plan measures. This climate action plan was adopted by the City Council in 2020. This would carry out many of the those measures in the Climate Action Plan and move that forward so staff recommends that the City Council adopted a Resolution to establish a recruitment process for up to seven ad-hoc members of the Community Advisory Commission to provide guidance on the Downtown Specific Plan Expansion Project and implement the related Climate Action Plan measures. That concludes staffs presentation. We're happy to take any Mayor Pro Tem Thank you, Mr. Chopyk. Do we have any speaker slips on this item? Mendoza
City Manager We do not have speaker slips.
Romero
Mayor Pro Tem Do we have any questions for Mr. Chopyk? I will start with Mendoza Councilmember LeBaron.
Councilmember I have no questions.
LeBaron
Councilmember Just to clarify, we have a $300,000 grant from SANDAG to allow us to Snow update this. Is that correct?
Bill Chopyk, That's correct.
Special Planning
Consultant
Councilmember Well, thank you very much. That's fantastic news to be able to get us Snow where we need to be and desperately needed updating. So that's really exciting. And then can you describe what we're going to be adding? What characteristics are you hoping to find the type of community that you're interested in looking for?
Page |9 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 Bill Chopyk, I think we're looking for members of the community who are interested Special Planning in the future of the City and the development of the Downtown and Consultant upgrading the Downtown Village Area. This project would allow residential use where it's currently not allowed in the general commercial zone, which is pretty much the length of Broadway. This would this would open up all of those commercial properties to mixed use residential development and then thereby would meet many of the goals of the Housing Element and the Climate Action Plan. Anyone who's interested in climate action, and housing and the future development of the city would be something that we would be looking for.
Councilmember Fantastic. All right. Thank you.
Snow
Mayor Pro Tem Councilmember Gastil
Mendoza
Councilmember My question is more about the context, because we have permanent Gastil members of the Community Advisory Council. I'm wondering, this might be a question for the City Manager. Can we review who is currently, who are the permanent members of the Community Advisory Council. How many people do we normally plan to have total on the Community Advisory Council?
City Manager So as Council knows, we have three permanent members on the Romero Community Advisory Council. The Chair is Mr. Jay Bass, the Vice- you're doing interviews at that time. And we think even at 10, which would end up being a 10-member panel with seven members is still manageable for a project of this size, this caliber. Councilmember Gastil, I've already had a discussion with the Chair that this may be coming forward for work for the work plan this year for the CAC.
Councilmember Wonderful...
Gastil
Page | 10 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 Mayor Pro Tem I have a question. So, you know, this is our second stab at this and thank Mendoza you to SANDAG that they're not holding it against us that the first time they gave us money to do this. We didn't all we weren't all able to agree.
Are we presenting the same plan that we looked at... what four or five years ago?
Bill Chopyk, This is the plan that was presented in 2018. And there were a number of Special Planning concerns that were expressed with this plan. I think we would use this Consultant plan as a basis but make the necessary revisions to the plan so that it meets the community's expectations. The SANDAG granted a grant under what's called the Housing Acceleration Program. And I think the reason that this was successful, the grant was successful is because the amount of housing that this project could generate. It's the plan that need some revisions and fine tuning on allowable uses and allowing property owners to continue their existing uses. A number of concerns came up that we would want to address in the planning process.
Mayor Pro Tem Yeah, I'm glad... I hope that all the people who came to the Council Mendoza meetings to complain about that plan, get involved and join the ad-hoc committee so that they can help shape what they want Downtown... from one group. And it was the housing density from what I recall, that was a big concern for people. So, I've you know, I think it's a great idea that we're doing this as a CAC project. And then the only other question or suggestion is I noticed on the as part of our staff report, there was a, an application for and this would probably be for the City Manager, there was an application, and I would just like to make it. We can ask people questions when we interview them, but maybe get a little more information like education background. I think it's said on there, where you work and what's your job title, but how long you know, how long have you been employed there and maybe what's a previous job and it's been there less than a couple years... because I bet I'm hoping we have like 25 people come in here and apply for this and that we can pick people who are really interested in helping to shape Lemon Grove.
City Manager Mayor Pro Tem Mendoza we can certainly revise the application to ask Romero some more background information. So, the Council has that information when they're interviewing the applicants as well.
Councilmember I always think I know so many people in Lemon Grove, because I've Mendoza lived here for so long. But then people come in there's new people moving into Lemon Grove all the time. And they have some great ideas and so. I don't know everybody that comes in and applies. Okay, so we're going to have another round of questions. Councilmember LeBaron. Do you have anything that you want to add?
Page | 11 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 Councilmember Not a question for staff. But I guess just to comment based on what you LeBaron just said. This is a volunteer position, personally, I don't think that it's necessary for several people who are applying for a volunteer position to give their input like on an advisory committee. I mean, in my part of my job, because I'm going to be securing financing for 1000s and 1000S of dollars for something. I grill people on what they do like where did you work prior to where you're working now? It's less than a year.
Honestly, people from this community have a heart, have a brain, who are conscious and breathing and wants to volunteer to do something. 1 don't feel it's necessary at all for us to ask an extensive do an extensive background check as to where they live, where they've worked and all this. And I think that that's very intrusive and unnecessary.
Mayor Pro Tem Thank you for your comments. Councilmember Snow.
Mendoza
Councilmember So one of the recently was passed at AB2011 which allows properties Snow that are in typically commercial areas. As a matter of right, go ahead and do this mixed use where we can they can add housing. I think that's going to be a very distinctive feature that we didn't have in 2018 that we have now. And allowing us to move forward with this plan still gives us a modicum of control and a vision of what we would like this area to look like and to really work with our business community to make sure that we have a really, this is like from Massachusetts, all the way down... That would be amazing if we could help that corridor and build housing at the same time. Which they can do as a matter of right, and wasn't available in 2018. I think this is our opportunity to really have a cohesive plan and cohesive vision rather than one person doing their thing and another person doing another thing. Is my understanding correct on AB2011 and it would allow them to do that.
Bill Chopyk, I believe so that by right housing for I think that's for projects with 20% Special Planning affordable, can be allowed by right and that that is one of the items in Consultant the housing element that the City will prepare that Zoning Ordinance amendment by the end of 2024.
Mayor Pro Tem Councilmember Gastil
Mendoza
Councilmember I don't know if it's appropriate to skip comments at this time because I Gastil
ccupation and a few other things, what kind of experience they bring nd one key difference is that this is very short term. We're not worrie Page | 12 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 about whether they're going to live in Lemon Grove for the next 10 years. You know, we're not looking for a long term commitment. But we do need to know something about them it because if we if we get more than seven applicants, we need some way of knowing you know, who we are appointing and if we want a diverse group of people, we have to know something about them. It would be an insult to the people that applied if we did a lottery system, and it would be an even worse insult if we just appointed people we know. We have to know something about them. And it's not because there's a particular type of person we re looking for. It's because we want a variety of perspectives and we have to know something about the people to make intelligent appointments and like our Mayor Pro Tem, I'm hoping that we'll get a lot of applicants. If we get four applicants well then we don't need to know much about them other than they breathe. But if we get eight or nine applicants and you know, we have to turn a couple of people away, we're going to want to know we're going to want to make intelligent decisions and get a diverse group of people. That's my comment. But we don't need to worry about whether they're long term or short term because it's a short term assignment. One interesting thing about Lemon Grove is that a lot of people don't stay here very long. And how are they represented? You know, that's something that that we should give some thought to. I think I'd be perfectly fine if there's a recent college grad or, you know, somebody that might be gone next year. You know for Planning Commission, I'd be concerned, you know, do we have a long term commitment to the community, but for this because we want to represent all kinds of people. I wouldn't be against having people that work in Lemon Grove in or have some connection other than residential, but I think that we've set it up so that it's limiter residence, but I'd say that's one way it actually is different than Planning Commission.
Mayor Pro Tem So, we do need a motion to adopt this Resolution.
Mendoza
Action: Motion by Councilmember Snow, second by Councilmember Gastil to adopt Resolution No. 2024-3999 establishing a recruitment process for up to seven Ad-Hoc members of the Community Advisory Commission (CAC) to provide guidance on the Downtown Specific Plan Expansion (DSPE) project and implementation of related Climate Action Plan (CAP) measures.
The motion passed by the following vote:
Ayes: LeBaron, Gastil, Snow, Mendoza
Noes: None
Absent: Vasquez
Award of Purchase/Task Order (No. 2024-02) for Traffic Signal Repairs to Southwest Signal Service [Item Moved to the City Council meeting on February 6, 2024] Page | 13 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 Discussion on Recommended Street Rehabilitation for Streets with a Pavement Condition Index of 25 or Below [Item Moved to the City Council meeting on February 6, 2024]
5. Council Initiated Item - Discuss an Urgency Ordinance for Mobile Home (Manufactured Home) Park Space Rent Stabilization
Mayor Pro Tem This is a Council initiated item by Councilmember Snow and myself to Mendoza discuss an urgency ordinance for Mobile Home Park Space - Rent Stabilization.
Councilmember On July 18, 2023, we all got together here and recognize the obvious in Snow our community; we have an emergency shelter crisis and an emergency housing crisis. And one of the problems with homelessness and keeping people in their houses, you have to turn off the faucet. Recently the Regional Taskforce on Homelessness came out with a report. It said a year ago for every 10 people that we lifted out of homelessness 13 more people became homeless. In the last year, those numbers were even more dire for every 10 that we lifted out of homelessness, 16 became homeless. And recently in our community there are mobile home parks that are raising rents that exceed necessary amounts and have threatened the housing of many of our community members. Hundreds of our community members are facing homelessness because they can't afford these increases in rent. It is more expensive to deal with homelessness of hundreds of people than it is to help people stay in their homes. And so what this proposal is - is a rate stabilization measure that would put in at first an emergency declaration where the rent could not be increasingly manufactured homes or mobile homes more than 3% plus the cost of living index or up to 5% and 5% being the maximum amount. That way the landlords have a reasonable amount that they can raise the rent if they need to. But it keeps people in their homes and homelessness is very expensive. So this is an emergency measure, a number of mobile home residents in our community have reached out to me for assistance. I think they've reached out to multiple people and the City itself for assistance. And it's up to the city to respond to this call to action prior to that members we have a duty to do all we can to protect them. There were some issues raised and I have spoken with community members that reside in mobile home parks here in Lemon Grove. I have also communicated with the owners of the parks and I have communicated with a representative of a manufacturer home. Her name is Julie Paul and I had spoken with her she had made the representation that there was a lawsuit filed that found in favor of the mobile home ark for representations and that were absolutely false. I pulled all th records from the court docket, they did not prevail. In fact, when thing look bad for them, they voluntarily dismissed their case. So they did not Page | 14 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 prevail in that action and the law and the back support that this is a completely legal process. And despite her claims, that this would require a red board and require an annual review to make sure that the rate adjustments were correct and within fair amount. All of that was rejected in case law and the statutory authorities on our side. So we allow for an adjustment it's that 3% to up to 5% and this gives the landlords fairness and it gives the tenants fairness. I think this is a reasonable approach and it will literally save people's housing we will we're gonna avoid homelessness. One of the people I spoke to today had been a member of one of our mobile home parks, and she had recently been received her notice to quit, she moved out she had no place to go.
And so now she's part of our homeless population here in the city. We got to do something, we can do better by our community members and so that's why I propose this measure for us to consider an Urgency Ordinance for Rent Stabilization.
Councilmember Thank you. Our first speaker is Richard Hammond Mendoza
Richard Hammett I'm moved here in 1966 with my father. We have built a store in Spring Valley neighborhood market and we traded that store for four units on Massachusetts Avenue. My father started a real estate investment family retirement fund which still exists today. We then, in this community, we understand this community I have branched out and bought other properties. I had a situation where I'm tried to be good to the tenants. 5% when you look at the numbers and when you analyze a specific properties, especially in a town like this, where it's an older community, If you go to Mission Valley with brand new apartments you don't have the physical depreciation, we can't fight physical depreciation. That's what's going on here. We have tremendous amount of landscapins resources that we have to maintain. The expenses are higher in this community than they are in the city of San Diego areas, Vista where you have brand new apartment structures, El Cajon where you have brand new apartment structures. So, I just want to say that there's an electronic highway that's being developed. In it's going to take the small-scale property owners like myself, with family retirement, this is our retirement. This is what we depend on just like CaPERS and CalSTERS they use a Yale model, the Yale Model best in residential real estate properties across the United States in a returns for miniature boards it does the heavy lifting. So my small family retirement fund returns me somewhere around 3 - 4%. Here's some here's some things I wanted you to write down since we don't have the this is the Southern Inspiration Homes. Write that down, look that up, that is a turnkey home where you can sell your home in Lemon Grove. Get on the electronic highway and 1031 IRS - IRS Section 1031 your money to Florida and they'll take your turnkey. That's what's coming. The replacement Page |15 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 ownership is with the liability company which is centered around the limited liability features that you fight every single day in this id or the family. Sortspondea maintenance, teh stabba is has we get situation that I'd like you to consider from the standpoint of a small scale family that's been here, actually since... in the 1940s actually built this down. The machine that's building rental properties and things like that. So take a look at your $750,000 price divide it by $9,600 and get a rate of return.
Mayor Pro Tem Next we have the Reverend Danny Brunner.
Menodza
Rev. Daniel Hello and Thank You:
Brunner
I appreciate the opportunity to come and speak before the Council today. This is an issue is very close to me because I am semi-retired and moved to Lemon Grove because of the affordability of a particular RV park called the Sundance RV Park. A charming little Parkway over there in North Avenue. I've had no issue or beef with the management or the ownership, but I was served notice in October of a 12% rent increase.
Now I can appreciate 5%, I can even sustained 10%. But 12% is certainly not sustainable for a lot of the members of my community out there and let me just describe a couple of them for you. Who, by the way, wanted me to speak on their behalf because they're afraid of the repercussions of coming before Council - tonight. Many of them are on fixed incomes. And they live not in a mobile home, but in their RV. I signed up for a lease there for over a year and I've been there since 2021. Others have been there for well over 10 years. If you were looking at the percentage of the data, two thirds of the people who reside in that park have been living there for over five years. So I would submit it's a mobile home apartment. But you cannot take that RV and move it to another park because they won't allow you to have an older RV. So they're stuck. So 12% on a fixed income is almost like poverty.
And in my view, it's a form of gentrification, to be really honest with you. They're pricing people out of there, so they can bring in something else. So I stand in favor of this particular ordinance that's being discussed today. I think it's humanitarian. I'm also a property owner in Canberra, Arizona, and I notified my tenants like they did in October, said look five percent is common because I have property. You know, I've got to buy property at me in case I think 5% you are right.
Councilwoman Snow. I think that's reasonable. That's what standard for the rest of the State. And here's the issue. We don't we have to teeth to enforce it and with this ordinance you will.
I thank you once again for your time, respectfully.
Page |16 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 Mayor Pro Tem That's all the speaker slips. Do we have any questions for staff? Mendoza
Councilmember My comment is the prior agenda items number two or three.
LeBaron
Number two. We were talking about volunteer positions. So you don't Ric as he he alison outer his so my comment.
was this see that I am very uncomfortable having this conversation that has to do with money. This has to do with things that are enforceable are going to have an effect on people's lives the property owner but people who live in this house mobile home park. There could be legal ramifications that we have from whatever we say here how we vote so m very uncomfortable having this conversation being that none o hat we're saving is being recorded. We're taking notes apparently wonder are these notes going to be posted online somewhere and even if they are, the accuracy can be questioned because they're a human writing down what their brains can capture. Okay, so that's already questionable, versus audio recording or video recording. This is the importance of why people who have television, cable television pay taxes if they pay a fee in what's called PEG fees so that we can have sound systems that are reliable. And because the City has taken a stance of not using those funds for what they are intended. They find ourselves in these kinds of predicaments to where very basic things are not possible. Like there's no reason why this meeting should not be getting audio recorded because like I said, this is actually talking about money.
There's people who can sue us over this.
Mayor Pro Tem I don't want to interrupt you. You can keep talking after I talk but I did Mendoza want to make a point. You're not going to actually make a decision on this or vote on this. From my understanding is we're going to give direction.
Councilmember Yeah, that's my understanding as well. Regardless, that said - I'm still in LeBaron the opinion that this conversation should be being had and this is all being audio recorded.
City Attorney I'll say something as well. I'll say something as well. It will come back, Steinke if that's the will of the Council. And then with regard to the minutes that we are taking. Those minutes are available for your review and approval. Just like all of the other minutes. They typically appear on the consent calendar. So if you see anything that's wrong with the minutes or something that you would like corrected on the matter that's in front of you today, it will be in the future minutes and you can correct it at that time. So it will be available for your review.
City Council Meeting Minules - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 Page | 17
Councilmember Yea, I understand that. Okay, paraphrasing what the totality of our LeBaron conversation. I think that's where I stand. That's what I think is an issue.
Mayor Pro Tem Councilmember Snow
Mendoza
Councilmember I just wanted to talk about how important this is to keep people in their Snow homes. We can have further discussion but I'd love to give the staff and I moved to get the staff direction to draft an Urgency Ordinance for the Mobile Home Manufactured Home Park Space Rent Stabilization. I think it's necessary. I think it's urgent. They were issued the notice in October, some of them have already experienced and had a January's rent at the increased rate of those who could afford to do so. For Mr.
Hammond who had spoken - this applies to manufactured homes and it's limited to that. There's a state ordinance that's currently a two year bill.
That was they put it on hold while the Anaheim mobile estates versus Robert Bonta, who is the Attorney General was proceeding, but now that that case has been dismissed, it is likely that that bill will move forward now. So we need to do this right now because we have people losing their homes right now. But in the future, there may be a same resolution to this same problem. But it's right now we can't let. I mean, I talked to the person who lost her home and who is homeless. I sat with her for about a half an hour today and talked about her plight and about things that we could do to try and get her back into a position of being housed. But it is - it is expensive for our firefighters. I think something like four out of seven of their calls are out to people who are unhoused.
Our Police Department is out there working and helping take care of the unhoused but that all comes at the expense of being able to take care of other crime issues in our community. It's really. Homelessness is super expensive, and it's dehumanizing. And so I really want to give people back their dignity. These are people who are paying their rent, these are paying who are willing to even pay some of them in a somewhat of an increase. But it's expensive for landlords to have to find new tenants to live there. I think this is a good solution that is fair and reasonable to each of the different parties involved. And particularly one that preserves our community's dignity. Thank you.
Councilmember I'm fine with having staff work on drafting an ordinance. I want to make Gastil sure that they spend some quality time with Mr. Hammett and other people that have that have concerns and sort out who's affected and who isn't affected. It's the nature of an emergency measure this where we one thing is that it the term emergency means it's enacted quickly. Another part of it though, is that it would be to fix an existing crisis in a very short-term kind of way, I think with an emergency measure we wouldn't Page | 18 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 be talking about something that would be making a plan that would be that would you know, that would be 10 or 20 years in the future. It'd be something to address the situation right now. And so, in my mind, an emergency measure might be for six months, maybe for a year, enough time, enough time to address a crisis and also to buy more time that we that could be used to develop policies and solve problems and, come up with one more long range, long range solutions. So in my mind, it's immediate, but it's also short term. So that helps. Yeah, I definitely think that we need to act and act quickly. And I wanted to direct staff to draft something for us.
Mayor Tem I understand Mr. Hammett's concern this is a step in the right direction.
Mendoza My intent and Councilmembers intent is that this just covers Mobile Home Park's in Lemon Grove, this is where our a lot of our very low income residents (not all) live at and have been living there for a long time. I used to bring leftover food from our food pantry to the Mobile Home Park. They have done some work to fix it up but there still needs a lot of improvements. We are not saying that they can't raise rents at all only that it needs to be reasonable. I think people are paying up and around 1,100 dollars for space rent right now or close to a 1,000 for space rent. If you have been in there, the only space is really the space you have your mobile home or RV and where you park your car. They have 40 spaces for that one little lot. A 10% increase and for people who are already stretched is a bit too much and that is why I am supporting that we ask staff to bring something back to us. Our City Manager is taking plenty of notes.
Councilmember LeBaron I respect what you say and if it doesn't reflect what we talked about tonight then you will have an opportunity at the next meeting to address it.
That's all I have.
City Manager I think we have direction. I don't think we need a vote for this. I'm Romero looking at the City Attorney. I think we have direction from a majority of the Council to allow staff to move forward to bring something back.
I'm assuming you're talking about your February 6 City Council meeting.
Councilmember Yes, correct.
Snow
City Manager We will have something to bring forth at your February 6th City Romero Council meeting for the Council to consider and we will ensure that the audio is working at that time. Like I said it was working when we set uf and it just stopped working right before six o'clock. So thank you very Page | 19 City Council Meeting Minutes - Regular Meeting January 16, 2024 much. We have direction if the City Attorney and I have questions. We will make sure that we go to the Councilmembers who initiated this item if we have any questions on that direction based on this discussion.
Thank you.
City Council Reports on Meetings Attended at the Expense of the City - None City Manager Report - None
Closed Session
a. Conference with Legal Counsel - Existing Litigation (Government Code §54956.9(d)(1)) Daniel Owens and Erlaine Ah Lan Owens v. City of Lemon Grove (San Diego Superior Court, Case No.: 37-2023-00013477-CU-EI-CTL) [Item Moved to the City Council meeting on February 6, 2024] Adjournment
Mayor Pro Tem So - that was our last item and we are not going into Closed Session.
Mendoza
I'm going to adjourn this meeting and to our next regularly scheduled City Council meeting on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 6 p.m. here in this room. Thank you all very much for coming and for your input tonight.
There being no further business, Mayor Pro Tem Mendoza adjourned the City Council meeting at 7:15 p.m.
Joel G. Pabto, City Clerk