Transcript: Special Legislative, Finance and Administration Committee Meeting
Monday, June 8, 2026
Machine transcript. Speaker names are machine-identified and can be wrong. Check the recording.
Showing 47 of 47 statements
Gerald L. Rocha, Sr.
Moved uh by Councilwoman Arndt to adopt the agenda, seconded by Mr. Shevock.
Play from 00:05Gerald L. Rocha, Sr.
Uh, Ms. Duca, you're, uh, on deck here. Looking forward to not calling you Acting City Manager after tonight, if the vote goes the way I hope.
Play from 00:16Sharon Duca
Good evening. Good evening, council, chair, mayor. Good to have you all here this evening, and the items on the agenda for tonight is proposed ordinance related to the public--
Play from 00:29Sharon Duca
Um, so the item on the agenda is an ordinance related to the development of a public safety fee, uh, specifically a public safety fund, as was discussed during the, um, budget hearings in the, near the end of May. Uh, the fund is developed to develop or pay for administrative and capital costs for police and fire services, uh, which would also include debt service. Uh, the ordinance itself was drafted after the current EMS or, um, basic ambulance service fund that is currently in the ordinance, um, basically outlining the similar requirements. Uh, there is an exemption provided for properties covered by the public safety higher education fund. Um, otherwise, it is set up where the fees and fee schedule would be provided in the rates and tariffs, which is also on the schedule for council this evening to review. So I'd be more than happy to take any, uh, questions regarding the proposed ordinance.
Play from 01:26Gerald L. Rocha, Sr.
Yeah. Uh, questions? Questions from members of the committee? Uh, Councilman Lewis?
Play from 02:47Brian E. Lewis
Uh, thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman. Uh, Ms. Duca, how much is this going to cost our constituents? I don't see a fee in the, in the proposed ordinance.
Play from 02:54Sharon Duca
Well, the, the ordinance itself is set up similar to, um, following our sanitation, our electric, so on, where those rates are included in the rates and tariffs. Um, but, um, after action taken by council during the hearings--
Play from 03:03Sharon Duca
The residential rate is set at zero. Uh commercial is divided into three groups: small, medium, and large, which uh basically coincide with electric designations for sizing commercial. Uh those rates are $10, $20, and $40 a month um according to that.
Play from 03:16Gerald L. Rocha, Sr.
Understood. Oh yeah, thank you. I I do remember us having that discussion where I think Mr. Anderson made a motion not to put this on the residents, but on on the businesses instead or or the commercial properties.
Play from 03:30Sharon Duca
Right. It is set up so that uh at some future time, if there's a decision to include residential, it could be done.
Play from 03:39David L. Anderson
Thank you. Thank you. And one of the important aspects of it is that this uh that the commercial isn't just business. It's commercial, so it applies to the nonprofits, etcetera, that get the same service uh just like the EMS fee does, the service, because we don't want to target our businesses, you know, but it's important. Uh there it costs them a lot less to do this if we do it right than if it does to hire security for sure. Um so um I will, and— Mr. Mayor.
Play from 03:45Robin R. Christiansen
You're recognized. Mr. uh Mr. Chair, before I speak, is there any other member of council that uh wants to speak to the subject? Uh so these funds are going to be encumbered for the uh police and fire department, and they will not go into general fund, or will they? How would they be allotted?
Play from 04:38Sharon Duca
They will be allocated for specific expenses related to police and fire. Fire, in particular, would be related to uh fire truck debt service and purchases. Um police is related to their administrative expenses and capital costs. So, um by establishment of the separate fund, it ensures that they are going directly to where they're supposed to um due to the additional accounting standards that are required to monitor those funds.
Play from 04:51Robin R. Christiansen
Thank you, Ms. Duca. We have uh over the many years uh had a a fund drive. Has anybody spoken to the chief or the president of the fire company about uh the impact that this would have uh possibly on their fund drive? To date, we've raised $87,000. Uh and I I don't know, have we have we reached out to the chief or or the administrative officer or the president of the fire company to see if they have any concerns about this impacting uh their fund drive? Because the fund drive usually raises about $117,000 less expenses for the solicitation. That's that's my concern. I yield the floor.
Play from 05:34Sharon Duca
I think it's important that the public understand that these we don't actually, other than the allotment we give the fire service once a year, we don't actually cover their full expenses. A lot of that is run through the volunteer fire department. So this is the city basically covers for the fire truck purchases and that's what this is being focused on on the fire side. So those needs of the fire department are not negated by doing this.
Play from 06:33David L. Anderson
And I I did speak with Chief Carey about it and he had raised no objections to it. In fact, he seemed to like the idea of of it being a full public safety aspect to it, just in case we ever lose the higher education allotment, it would provide a mechanism. Assuming that depending on what we do in the next month, with a different discussion, I'd be very happy if this is temporary and we repeal it, but and replace it with something better, but it's what we have now. Anyway, that's but I did I did speak with him about it. So and and I'm not saying he gave a thumbs up one way or another, but he didn't express any concerns to me, and he did like the back up that that it could be a back up if need be in the future.
Play from 06:53Andre M. Boggerty
I think that's it then. All right, is there a motion? Oh, Councilman Lewis.
Play from 07:59Brian E. Lewis
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The only question I have is if there's any money left over, specifically it states in the ordinance that the money has to be allocated for certain things, am I correct?
Play from 08:03Brian E. Lewis
So if there's funding left over, what's going to happen? Will that have to come back to Council to be appropriated to something specific? Just hypothetically if there's any money left over because it states, again I reiterate, that it has to be allocated for certain things. Example, if there's extra money left over in the Police Department and the Chief wants to go out and buy some drones, can he go ahead and rightfully do that or does that have to come back to Council or you? Can you explain that or elaborate on my question?
Play from 08:37Sharon Duca
I think one of the important things with a fund like this, particularly with the diversity that it sets up for what can be covered, that should really be discussed during the budget hearings, so that Council can know exactly where we're planning on allocating those funds to. So if it's $600,000 for the year, we're going to tell you where that $600,000 is being applied to. So there shouldn't be a finding of money, but considering the setup of going through the budget hearings and going to Council, if there was something additional discovered...
Play from 09:01Brian E. Lewis
Okay, thank you. So I just want to make sure, again, that the money is specifically allocated for what's supposed to be allocated for.
Play from 09:54David L. Anderson
Yeah. Thank you- thank you for that question, Councilman Lewis. This is, uh, reason why it's being done in the fund is for transparency, so that the public can have the utmost trust in where the money goes and what it's utilized for. Um, and, um,
Play from 10:07David L. Anderson
Like old times here. You remember when Legislative Finance used to all be up here?
Play from 10:34Gerald L. Rocha, Sr.
I move that- this is Councilman Rocha. I move to accept staff recommendation uh for the proposed ordinance 2026-12.
Play from 11:33