All right, we're going to call our special City Council meeting to order for March 27, 2025 at 6 o'clock PM and our first order of business will be roll call. Yes, Council Member Loverd. Here. Council Member McCallan. Absent. Council Member Hogan. President. Council Member Timber. And Councilmember Saldana. Here. Thank you. At this time, it's time for public comment. However, I have no public speaker slips. Does that do you have any? None were submitted. Okay. Thank you very much. We'll move on to our first item. They had consent calendar for and so is this a consent calendar item? Well, Mayor, it's what it is. It's one single item and it is a consent calendar item. But if you'd like, I can give a presentation to you. I don't have a problem doing that. No but I think just so the rest of the council understands I received a letter denying our claim for the emergency fence and forward it to you and I think from there you went forward with additional discovery correct? Yes. That is separate from this item, although it's related. So we could talk about it. But let me just touch on the staff report and the item that's before the council first. And then I'll give an update on where we are with reimbursement of expenditures related to the line fire, which is what the mayor is speaking to if I may. So first thing is relative to this proclamation. So what we've been doing for the past a few consecutive times is to extend the proclamation of the local emergency. And that's to be consistent with the county of San Bernardino. They've been doing the same thing. In fact, I was informed by them that they're going to continue to do it through the end of the fiscal year. So through June 30th, they're going to continue to extend the proclamation. And the reason why they want to do that is to be eligible for funding reimbursement should you continue to bear expenses related to this event. So that's a strategic move. And so we want to be following the same along the same line. And so that's why this item is before you. Just for your information, the city council does need to make a decision as to whether they want to continue. The local emergency or whether they want to end it and have to do that within 60 days of each of the resolutions. We're coming to you on the next 60 and so this would be the fifth time that we do the extension and so that's effective. 60 days each time. Correct. 60 days each time. So just to be clear we'll need to do this one more time in order to line up with what the county is doing so that we extend it through the end of the fiscal year. So this will be coming to the council one more time and the reimbursement also applies to flood damage. Oh, and John if you could turn on your mic just so that we could get it on the This also applies to flood damage, right? Yes, but that could go on for another two or three years It can but but but what we've been told is that the flooding event is a separate event than the fire So Cal OES has made the distinction that there are two separate events. Okay. But I will be honest with you, you know, we are, they are still making funding available because there is a correlation to the mud flows, to the incidents, because they all derived from the fire, from the line fire. So they're not denying the claims, but what has been done is that they have established what they call an in-period to the line fire event. But for now, we're continuing to follow that protocol of extending it until such time that it will be the end of the fiscal year. Because I know last time we process claims for a long time after the old fire. Yes. The other fire, not this one, but yeah, prior ones, yeah. But yes, and that doesn't mean though that we, the city or I as a director of emergency services, couldn't call for a separate proclamation related to the mud flows. So if we wanted to, after this one ended and we had further incidents and there wasn't anything in place at the time, the city can declare a local emergency. So we still have that ability exactly. And so we would be prepared to do that to just to let the council go. But that's relative to this item. And unless there's any questions relative to why we're extending this, that's what that is for. But now what I wanted to do is touch on what the mayor has bought. Well, do we need to vote on this? We do on this one. Yeah, too. Let's do that. A movie agenda item to continue the emergency declaration. Thank you. We have a motion. A second. Okay. Roll call. Yes. Council member Lovern. Yes. Council member McAllen. Absent. Council member Hogan. Yes. Council member Timmer. Yes. And Council member Saldana. Yes. Okay. Perfect. So if I may, Mayor, I'd like to give a quick update on the status of the city's request for reimbursement. And so what we've experienced is this that, and I'll keep it short, and I'll obviously answer any questions you may have, but keep it simple here. So what we have is a calorie is as different funding pots, pots of many if you will, they come from different resources and so we recently received some good news and some bad news relative to our reimbursement request. So let me start with the bad news first. So in the bad news front we did receive a letter that indicated that we were rejected for reimbursement of a certain request that the city made. And what that was attributed to is when the line fire affected us, the only impact to the city in regards to property damage was a vinyl fence, plastic fencing and some irrigation along the Emerton trail. And so, Clover Hill Trail. And so, we submitted that as a request for reimbursement. And that's the item that was rejected by Cal OES for reimbursement. And the reason why they cited the rejection of that reimbursement is twofold. One is that, unfortunately, when cities can demonstrate that they have adequate reserves and funding necessary to do certain repairs, the state is going to use that and evaluate that as part or consider that as part of their evaluation process as to whether or not a public agency will be given funds. In other words, if you're an agency that's strapped for funds and you have this kind of an incident occur and you don't have the money to go out and do the repairs, they're going to give you some consideration so that you can go out and do it. But if you're an agency like Highland, who's responsible who has the funding, they may not consider it. And that was one of the reasons why we were rejected for that particular request. The The second reason is that this vinyl fencing that I just mentioned while it is a fencing that we the city are responsible for doing and putting up the property that it sits on is actually East Highlands Rant H.O.A. and the only way it could also be reimbursed. My understanding is that it has to be such that the facility has to be both within the property of the city and maintained by the city. We don't meet both requirements. Therefore, based on that criteria, the calories had no choice but to reject that part of the claim. So that's the reimbursement request. So that's the bad news. The good news is that we did receive approval for a separate request and that is for staff time. So for the overtime time that staff spent on the project related to the line fire and that is not just of the staff that's paid on an hourly basis but it's also management staff so all staff. So yes it includes well actually it the vehicles only. Yes so what happened. And their own separate request. Yes. So what happened during the line fire is the county submitted a separate request and they included the efforts that were done through our cal fire folks because cal fire was involved in the incident as a whole. So they did do that. So in other words, cal fire and our sheriffs both got reimbursed but they got it through the county because what they did was they did not. It's in process. it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's gonna happen and so for those efforts the city was not billed by either Cal fire or or the sheriffs related to us Carlos, how long does it take once you submit a request for reimbursement? It can take a long time. It's a very slow process. The state now, if it ever goes to the team, that's even another whole issue. Once FEMA gets involved, my guess is with the state budget issues, they're going to deny all this stuff. Yeah, well, let's hope that they don't. But that's also a possibility that because of the funding deficits and issues, you know, as you guys may have heard, LA recently, if you guys aren't aware or didn't hear, they have a $1 billion deficit in their budget. That's city of Los Angeles. So yes, to the point of our Council Member Timmer, that's correct. But when the line fire did occur, the governor declared an emergency and so did the county. So we have all that, but at the end of the day, if they don't have the money, they they don't have the money. We are approved for that reimbursement. Right now the amount that we have given to them for reimbursement is in the order of magnitude or about $30,000. We are seeking to confirm that we have all of our hours and time included and if we need to amend that a little bit we're checking into that to make sure we're fully reimbursed for all of our efforts. Okay, good. Well. So the bad news was that we're getting penalized because for a wall run. Yeah, that is so true. That is exactly correct. It's unfortunate but that's how it works. I was a bit surprised when I heard that as well. That's a very unfortunate. Well, I guess that's when you take the high road, and I'm glad that our city is run as well as it is. You know, good job. Well, with a huge state budget deficit, they're going to be coming after city revenues like they have in the past. Guarantee that's coming down the bike and I see someone nodding their head over there. So don't be surprised. There he took out the RDA funds that we had. Well, in addition, they're going to go after our general fund. Yeah. Guar guarantee it. Yeah, we have in the past. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that. Thank you. Any other comments? Any comments? Okay. Without will adjourn. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks you guys for coming.