City Council - Regular Meeting

and welcome to today's city council meeting today, Monday 11th, 2026. I now call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. District 1, Council Member Casey, present. District 2, Council Member Vieiraa, here. District three, Council Member Otto, here. District 4, Vice Mayor Martinez, present. Mayor Lopez,

here. Everyone, please stand for the invocation by Dick Corners from the series Baptist Church, followed by the pledge of allegiance led by veteran Dave Pratt. Let's pray together. Great God and heavenly father, I give thanks tonight for your many blessings upon us as we make our lives here in Santa Los County. I ask that you would be with our leaders this night here in these chambers. That you would give them wisdom with the affairs of our city. While our ways as a community are not perfect and we often fall short of the righteous standard of your throne, I pray that you may extend to us mercy and grace that we may live here in peace. that we may be good stewards of the lives and opportunities you give us in this place and in these days. I ask for our protection against evil and for the blessings that come so freely from your almighty hand. May we learn to pursue true justice and true righteousness as you define them in your holy word. And may we grow to be a community more committed to each other's welfare and good. Provide for our needs, I ask. and may we do well in managing all the resources of this community. Finally, I pray for our emergency responders, our fire department, and our police and sheriff department. Keep our men and women safe, and may they execute their duties with courage and faithfulness, receiving the esteem and appreciation they so deserve from us for their service. Pray these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Uh Dave Pratt for American Legion s uh series post491 to begin the pledge. May we all begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you everyone. Thank you.

Thank you Dave. Appreciate that. We do have four presentations today before the council goes up. Let me go ahead and read them all off. Casey will be presenting the stroke awareness and prevention month proclamation received by Dorothy Brianna James from Doctor's Medical Center. Council member Rosen Nieo will be accepting, excuse me, not accepting. We'll be reading the mental wealth awareness week proclamation accepted by NAMI on campus club for series high school. They will be accepting the proclamation. I will be reading the National Public Works Week proclamation and Superintendent of Public Works Josh will be accepting the proclamation. Councilwoman Otto will be reading off the older Americans Month proclamation and Shirley Rogers will be accepting that proclamation. Council members Whereas in 1989, President George H. W. Bush signed the first National Stroke Awareness Month proclamation to promote public awareness and reduce the incident of strokes in the United States. Mentioning the work

done by the National Institute of Neurology Disorders and Strokes, the National Stroke Association, and the National Heart Association. And whereas a stroke is caused by blocked blood flow to the brain and can affect person's speech, movement, memory, and more. And is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States with more than 795,000 strokes occurring each year. And whereas certain factors increase chances of having a stroke such as smoking, drinking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and bad eating habits. And additional factors that may be linked to higher stroke risk include COVID 19, geographic locations, social economic factors, alcohol and drug abuse, and sleep habits. And whereas up to 80% of strokes may be prevented by living a healthy lifestyle and taking advantage of preventive services such as cardio disease screening, heart vocular behavior therapy, alcohol misuse screening and counseling, diabetic screening, self-management training, nutrition, therapy service, obesity, behavior therapy, and counseling to

prevent tobacco use and tobacco caused disease. And whereas it is important to us, it is important to know the signs of the stroke such as weakness in the face, arm or leg, difficult breathing, vision loss, dizziness, and a brief loss of consciousness. And by learning and sharing the FAST warning signs, you might just save a life from a stroke, face drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulty. Call 911 anytime now. Therefore, it be resolved that our mayor Javiar Lopez, the city of Sirius, and on behalf of the city council, our vice mayor, Daniel Martinez, council members Rosalyn Vieiraa and Serena, and myself, James Casey, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as a stroke awareness month. I would like to add to that that after you have a stroke, therapy helps quite a bit. And our at Doctor's Hospital here in Modesto, they have a support group that meets once a month that we might hear about later. Thank you. Well, if

we can have uh members and doctors, please come up to the podium to accept the proclamation. Hey. Uh, I'm Dr. Jaffy. I'm medical director of the stroke program. This is Marty, the official stroke dog. Uh, anyway, uh, we're proud what we've done. uh over nine years we've become a comprehensive stroke center which is pretty rare in non-university university medical centers but we've worked hard and we've become the actual number one center in California for removing clots out of the brain uh which is called throbectomy uh bigger than any other place in California and certainly almost as big as any place in the nation uh so we're here for you we're 247 365 seven days a week and We've saved thousands of lives and we'll continue to do so. Thank you.

We'll go ahead and take a photo in the front here. Yeah, you can start.

I was just going to Mr. Casey wants me to do just let you guys know we do have a stroke support group. It runs every month on the 4th Tuesday. It's from 6:00 to 7:00 pm at the Mckenry Conference Center. So, anybody that you know that needs any support, um it is a great group. Uh so, hopefully you can pass along that information and thank you for having us here. Thanks. I think we have the nomni club. If you guys are here, you want to come up one up everybody on the video.

All right. Glad to have them here today. I think it's great. But today we're doing uh this is mental health awareness week and we're doing on the city council whereas mental health is essential to everyone's overall health and well-being and addressing the mental health needs in series of our children, youth, adults, seniors and families is fundamental to having a healthy community. And whereas all people experience times of difficulty and stress in their lives. And with the prevalence of mental health conditions in the nation, it is important for all members of our community to know that Pacific tools exist which can be used to better handle challenges and protect one's health and wellbeing. And whereas protection is an effective way to reduce the burden of mental health conditions and with early and effective treatment, individuals with mental health conditions can recover and lead full productive lives. And whereas it is appropriate to recognize the importance of improving mental well health in all of our residents and series is committed to raising awareness about mental health illnesses, promoting effective community partnerships and collaborations to serve the mental health needs of our community and increasing access to cultural and logistical appropriate mental health services. Now, whereas it be resolved, not myself, but Javier, mayor of Series, on behalf of the entire city council, Vice Mayor Daniel Martinez, and council members James Casey, myself, Rosalinda Deiea, and Councilwoman Serena hereby proclaim May 11th through 17, 2026 as mental health awareness week. Thank you. If you guys want to come up and Hello and good afternoon everyone. Mental health is just as important as physical health. Especially for high school students. Many students face stress, anxiety, pressure from school,

social media, relationships, and concerns about their future. When mental health is ignored, it can affect the students confidence, academics, friendships, and overall well-being. That is why educating high school students about mental health is so important. It helps students recognize when they or someone else may need support and teaches them that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. By creating awareness, we can reduce stigma and build a school's community where students feel safe, supported, and understood. When students learn healthy coping skills and know where to find resources, they are more likely to succeed not only in school, but also in life. Mental health education helps create a stronger, kinder, and healthier society for everyone. Thank you. 40% of students ages 12 to 17 report mental health symptoms. That's almost one in two people. That's almost one in two children. We need to create systems in school in order to help every help children and aid them and teach them that there are healthy coping skills and there is a way for them to feel safe and supported in schools rather than creating environments that look down upon mental health and treat it as something to be ignored and not talked about. Thank you.

Oh, he's already Oh, there he is. Come on over here, sir. From May 17 to the 23rd, 2026 is National Public Work Week rooted in service powered by community by the city of Sirius Council. Public works professionals focus on infrastructure facility and services that are of vital importance to the community's public health and well-being. the people of the city of series. These infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without a dedicated efforts of public works professionals or engineers, managers and employees at all levels of government and the private sector. who are responsible for rebuilding, improving and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for the citizens of Siri. It is the it is in the public's interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children in the city of Sirius to gain knowledge of and maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities. This year, 2026 marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association. Now therefore, be it resolved I, Javier Lopez, mayor of the city of series, on behalf of the city council, Vice Mayor Daniel A. Martinez, council member James Casey, Rosinda Elviea, and Serena Otero, do hereby proclaim May 17th through the 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week. And I urge all citizens to join with representatives of the American Public Works Association and government

agencies in activities, events, ceremonies designed to pay tribute to our public works professionals, engineers, managers, and employees and to recognize the substantial contributions they make to protecting our national health, safety, and advocating quality of life for all. Congratulations, comments.

Uh just want to thank all the public works staff. Uh we couldn't do anything that goes on at the city uh without them and without their dedication. Um even in times of you know uh late nights standby hours they're here and they're they're always ready to work. So can't do anything without the public work staff. Just want to thank them. This next proclamation is going to be given to Miss Shirley Rogers. if you want to come up. Proclaiming May 20 May 2026 as older Americans month. Whereas Siri strives to ensure that our community is a great place for people to grow older while thriving within families and their neighborhoods. And whereas older America Americans month is a time to recognize older Americans contributions, highlight aging trends, and reaffirm our commitment to serving older adults. And whereas the 2026 theme for Older Americans Month is champion your health. And whereas this theme encourages taking an active role in managing your own health, advocating for yourself, accessing preventive care, and making informed decisions that support independence. And whereas highlighting the importance of evidence-based approaches, self-management, and community partnerships will empower individuals to lead their healthiest lives. Now therefore, be it resolved by

Mayor Javier Lopez, city of series on behalf of the city council, Vice Mayor Daniel A. Martinez, council members Jame Casey, Rosalinda Alviea, and myself, Serino, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as Older Americans Month. Thank you. This is an honor to accept it on behalf of the seniors in series and those that don't admit to being seniors. Now moving on to citizens communications. While the city council welcomes and encourages participation in city council meetings, adopt the rules allow no more than 5 minutes. Resolution 2007106 for expression of non-aggenda items. Matters under the jurisdiction of the city council and not posted on the

agenda may be addressed by the general public. However, California law prohibits the city council from taking any action on any matter which is not posted on the agenda unless it is determined to be an emergency by the city council. Citizens are entitled to address city council on any agenda item subject to the five-minute provision. Anyone wishing to address the city council must adhere to the rules of decorum and the rules of decorum are posted outside the chamber doors. And we will start with our representatives. Are there any of our representatives here today? I know I seen Alberta Gil's office online, but not too sure if she has any comments for today. We also have Lisa Monter Moore online. I'm not too sure if she has any comments for Representative Adam Gray. Seeing none. We will start with our yellow cards and then in person as well. Okay. The first person that we have today general comment is Deep Gil. Welcome. Please step up to the podium and state your name, sir. Hi, my name is uh Deep Gil. I own the series GrubHub here in town as well as several other businesses. Um, first and foremost, I want to thank the council for opening city of Sirius up to having Grubhub hubs and giving us the opportunity. But tonight, I'm here to talk about what we've been dealing with since we've been open. Um, your guys's community development director has not stopped harassing us for about 6 months now. And we've only been open for 6 months. Every week he shows up

taking photos, taking pictures, harassing the food trucks. You know, he did this for the first three months. We're like whatever. Maybe he has a personal grudge against us because his vetos project got denied. A month disappeared. Didn't say a word. All of a sudden, he's back. whether he's emailing my partners or something, showing up, um, harassing the food trucks about playing music when it clearly states in our cup that we only can't have live music. Nothing against them playing music off the stereo, nothing like that. The other day, we got a phone call from one of our trucks saying he had showed up with five police officers. Well, we drive over there. He doesn't even have the audacity audacity to come talk to us, explain to us what he's doing. Doesn't say a word to us. Doesn't mention anything. Lucky enough, the lady from the county, some of the code enforcement officers, we know them. They came over to us, told us what was going on. We told them, "Hey, any issues, feel free to call us." We left. But this has been going on non-stop for 6 months, and I just don't understand it at this point. So we invested 1.5 million into that project off of the previous city managers were dug that we would be the only GrubHub in this town overnight. They approved two. We appealed one. It got denied. Ever since then Julian has just had a personal grudge against us. Never done anything to him personally. Don't know him personally. Don't even know why he's coming after us like this. and also makes me think either Vetos was paying him or he had personal interest in the project himself. Um the other day he's conducting his search. His first truck he went up to was Bros Taco. Bros Tacos. He asked her for her business license. She told him, "Hey, you're here ordering food for me every week. You don't see my business license in the window when you're here." You know, everybody started laughing. Um we have another truck, Terceas Takaria.

Um, older gentleman, Hispanic, doesn't really speak English, doesn't know how to use a computer. You guys have changed your quarterly filing to online. Um, so he comes over, his name's Chava. He's explaining to Julian in Spanish like, "Hey, I don't know how to file. I'm not trying to do anything wrong or hire anything. I just don't know how to use your guys' computer system." What does Julian do? He doesn't even reply to him, even though he knows how to speak Spanish. Looks over at his assistant, says, "Write him a $100 ticket." Right? So, I put Andy on the phone. Andy spoke to Chava, explained to him in Spanish what was going on. Um, he filed his quarterly tax payment, 76 bucks, and here you write him a $100 ticket. Your job is community development director. You should be helping businesses succeed in your town and grow, not trying to scare them out of the GrubHub where they're located, which they spent $40 to $50,000 on food in the food trucks, their life savings, trying to make a few hundred a day the right way. Right? He shows up Friday nights, Saturdays, Sundays, which I know for damn well the guys posted at the corner selling food illegally. He's not going to go bother them when he's not get on the clock getting paid. Um, he's already scared one of our trucks off. They went back to Modesto Grubhub cuz he said, "This is crazy over there. Nobody ever shows up." This guy's here every other day bothering us. Um, like I said, I have several businesses in this town. One is top 10 in tax generating revenue. the other ones in the top 25. My taxes are paying essentially your salary, sir. And here you are trying to put my $ 1.5 million out of business constantly. What we did to you, I don't know. Like I said, I don't know you personally. But this stuff needs to stop today. Otherwise, I'm going to get my lawyer involved and we'll go from there. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I have the next speaker, Andy Sanchez. Good evening, Mayor Lopez, City Council, everybody else here. Um, my name is Andy Sanchez. I'm also on partners with Deep um on the series GrubHub. Uh, who would have ever known this is going to be such a difficult project? But, um, I'm just here to to add to what Deep had to say. Um, Julian has been a little difficult. Um, we have I have received emails. I've had certain things that feel really nitpicky. Um, I mean, I've tried to comply with his I mean, what he's going by the last week was a little bit of a straw that broke the camel's hump. Um, Mother camel's back. Sorry. But we just want to kind of hopefully come and resolve the situation. Hopefully come uh maybe have a personal conversation with Julia and maybe we can move forward. Hopefully it isn't because of the other GrubHub that we appealed and there wasn't a personal um interest in that GrubHub. But just some of the things that I've experienced from Julian I mean one was the music as Jul did mention um on our conditional use permit. We are allowed to have music not live music. Uh on two occasions he went and spoke to two different trucks. They had a boom box out there told them they couldn't use it. Um, another we had on our on our series GrubHub logo, we had the City of Series logo on probably 2% of the size of our logo. It was on the door of one of the little trucks. Um, come find out Julian says that wasn't able to be used and we

had to re remove it. I mean, it cost us cost us a little bit of money. We had a billboard up on 99 and it cost us $800 to remove just the series. It's PMing um the logo from our billboard. Things like that. We've kind of had uh right now the one that's concerning me is uh Francis Horton from the county said that Julian let her know that we're unable to use the trucks are a unable to hook up to our water because it may not be potable water. I don't know what the difference of city water for a restaurant or one of these taco trucks is. Um but I guess our water is going to be tested now to see if we're able to use it. Um, uh, yeah. So, we just, yeah, I mean, we've seen code enforcements out there. This week, they had five officers out there. We spoke to one. He kind of he kind of, uh, let us know his his opinion. It was a little bit ridiculous uh what was going on, but I mean if we can honestly Julian, if we can sit down, we'd like to just kind of hopefully make be successful in this city. Um hopefully we can I mean not I can go back and apply. I haven't applied for a sign out or a monument sign out in front of our business because of the fact that um I was told by Julian that if I tried to update my address, which there was a mistake on our application, um our address is listed as 4030 Farm Supply Drive, which is also our property as well. Um the GrubHub sits on 4040 through 4070 Farm Supply. When I told him I was going to try to correct it, he told me that I would have to go back through planning commission and city council to get it approved. Um, it was such a headache in the beginning. I really don't want to do it again. So, I haven't applied for any kind of uh permits or anything to do anything there because we just don't want to like I mean, we don't want to shake it up anymore. We just kind of want to run a

business. Um, so just wanted to come in, put it on the record. Hopefully, uh, yeah, I mean, if things arise in the future, I mean, we can work it out. I'm not trying to, I mean, be a thorn. I mean, I'd like to get the thorn out of my side to be honest with you. Um, so, thank you guys. Thanks for hearing me out. You guys have a good night. Thank you, Andy.

Can we please have Milt come up, please? Good evening, uh, mayor, council, staff, and community members. Milt Treeweiler. I'm a lifetime Stannis County residents. We're living in a changing world, and it's challenging our minds and our reasoning. The best bedroom communities for the Bay Area people are the cities of Pleasanton, Liverour, Mountainhouse, and Tracy because the soils there around the cities are poor and lack water. Also, the large land area east of Fairfield along Highway 12 to Rio Vista. Again, the soils are poor and lack water for farming. Yet, here in series, you are encroaching on the best farmland in the world. Please remember that only 2% of the land on the earth is farmland. It has the water, the soil, and the climate to grow fruit trees and nut treats. Trees we have around here in series. Please be aware that this growth will not make series a better place because residential growth never pays for itself. It'll be the series residents who have to pay for the growth. Building single family homes is all about the building industry association and their influence on the councils and staff of the city. There would be no problem if this was the state of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, or New Mexico. You can build all the houses you want to there in these states because they don't have any farmland to destroy. Now, we're going to provide how are we going to provide good healthy food for our children and descendants if we create a food desert by building single family housing on land around series. It's not for the residents of pe of series. It's just for a few people to make money. This growth will benefit only a few families and all the other uh serious families will suffer from the higher utility bills, the pollution, the congestion and the headaches of sprawl.

The building industry association will tell you all kinds of tales to try to convince you that building housing is good for the city. They will say that farmland list will be mitigated by placing farmland in a trust even when they know this does not happen here in Stannislas County. They'll try to tell you that there is farmland like this all over the world, but they can never show it to you because there is no farmland better than there is here on the earth. I will say that if all of you want to eat wheat, oats, corn, and soybeans, there is a lot of farmland for that. But here we have the best tree farmland in the world. When you evaluate your actions with an open mind and reason b uh reasoning based on facts and reality, you'll realize that this is a mistake to build family single family homes here. And if you want to see the best example in Status County, you go down south on 99 highway. You take the Monavista turnoff and uh you go into Turlock and about a mile and a half in on the north side of the street you will see the very best development in Stannis Loss County. They're putting in 12 large units a yard large buildings that have a total of 348 units and a small footprint. They have single family or single bedroomedroom units. They have two bedroomedroom units. They have three bedroomedroom units. It's ideal. It's not taking up a lot of land. It's giving you 348 housing units, which are not going to be as expensive as single family units. At least it'll be good for us seniors and for firsttime buyers so that they get into some housing. But you, the council and mayor, are

going to have to be the one that stops the sprawl that's going on around series. Thank you. Thank you very much.

We can have Andy from Case Manufacturing. Good evening, Mayor Lopez, rest of the city council. My name is Andy Harttog. I'm the chief operations officer at Case Manufacturing. I'm here tonight because we are days from losing our business and I want the council to understand exactly what is stake before you go into close session to vote. Case manufacturing has submitted a concrete goodfaith proposal. It puts $200,000 into the city's hands immediately, not eventually. Not a schedule that depends on future negotiations immediately upon resolution. This is real money the city can put to work for its residents right away. We are ready to write the check. We simply need the city council to say yes. But I need to be honest with you tonight about how much little time is left. We have already lost key employees. People who could not afford to keep waiting have moved on and we are now days away from losing our anger client. A publicly traded company has been a cornerstone of our operations. If they walk, and they will walk without an immediate resolution. Case manufacturer will no choice but to close its doors. At this point, the $200,000 we are offering tonight disappears. The tax revenue disappears. The jobs disappear. my friends, my colleagues, they don't have jobs. They don't have a way to live in the city of Series in the Modesto area. I also want to remind the city council of something fundamental. What we entered in together was a pilot programs. Those are the city's own words, not ours. We were invited to work here in the city. We invested $15 million in this community based on the

city's invitation and promise to navigate this new industry together. We have already paid $1.7 million in taxes to participate in this pilot program. When it encountered challenges as a pilot programs do, we kept showing up. We kept investing. We kept trying to find resolution. You do not penalize partners for difficulties encountered in a pilot program that you invented invited them into. You work through them together. This is all we have ever asked. We have made a bonafideed offer, $200,000 upfront immediately, 3% ongoing tax, and a fully financial transparency, including bank statements, so the council can see exactly where we stand. This is not a negotiating tactic. This is everything we have. We are asking the city council tonight to approve our proposal. Get Case back to work. Put $200,000 into the city treasury immediately and give my employees their jobs back. The clock is running out. Please do the don't let it expire tonight. Thank you guys for your time.

Thank you very much.

The next person is Susan Simpson. They brought some interesting facts before your council right now. I want to remember Memorial Day. Memorial Day is so special in my life and I want to have everyone recognize the sacrifice and the courage that these people have given us in their efforts to keep our democracy free. I was also reminded that this is the red poppies from World War I. And my goodness, the the sacrifice there was tremendous. And I want to read, if I may, the uh statement that they made on this. During the early days of the second battle of Ibris, not sure about that pronunciation, a young Canadian art artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on May 2nd, 1915 in the gun positions near Hippies. An exploding German artillery shell landed near him. He was serving in the same Canadian artillery unit as a friend of his, the Canadian military doctor and artillery commander, Major John McCrae. And McCrae is his

commemoration of his friend. He was asked to conduct the burial service for Alexis because the chaplain had been carried away that evening. It's believed that later that evening after the burial, John began the strath for his now famous boy in Flanders Field. And now I'll read the poem. In Flanders fields the poppies blow below the crosses row on row that marks our place. And in the sky the lark still bravely seen lying scarce herd among the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago we lived felt on saw sunset glow. Loved and were loved. And now we lie in Fender's fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe. To you from fing hands we throw the torch to be yours to hold high. If you break the faith with us who die, we shall not sleep. No poppies grow in Flanders field. And God bless our soldiers. May they be protected. and may you remember them in your prayers. Thank you. Last person with the yellow card, Nason Sanchez. Greetings, mayor, vice mayor, council, directors. My name is Nason Sanchez and

series is a city that I call home. Several weeks ago on a Friday roughly around 6:30 p.m. at Smyrna Park there was a host of individuals that gathered there. The reason for this gathering was for the sixth annual palletas policas and low riders. in translation that is ice creams, police and lowriters. I want to come here tonight and to commend Chief Johnson for being a part of that and officer Godfrey as well. Not only that, but also for Chief Evans for joining us that evening. The mission of this event was to gather not only the community, not only our fellow officers that were able to and a fire department as well. It was more than just to gather and to get a couple low riders and classics and a crew specifically to various neighborhoods in this lovely city. The emphasis of this was for the youth to see, for the parents of the youth to see as well, that it is okay to gather together and to show that mutual respect for one another and also for the police department and the fire department as well. In these neighborhoods that we did focus on, we all know especially the police department, these neighborhoods are crimeridden neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are some lowincome neighborhoods. These neighborhoods no doubt are breeding ground for the youth to get caught up into things that wouldn't benefit them in the long run.

So I thank them and also I thank the sponsors that donated the ice creams. without second hesitation. When I went to speak to costless, they said, "Nason, how many palletas do you need?" When I spoke to Malloy Ice, they gave me the same response and also the Latino uh Chamber of Commerce of Stannis Loss County in providing the ICE and also love our neighbors. This is a united effort amongst many individuals that helped make it happen. And a special thanks of course to the low rider community on being a part of it. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Is there anybody else in the audience that would like to make a comment before we move on to Zoom? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and go to Zoom. We have one hand raised. Jeanley, you can unmute your mic. Jean, you'll need to unmute your mic. We cannot hear you. Okay, Fallon, do you have any emails?

I do have one email that needs to be read into the record. Go ahead, please.

Just one moment. We have an email from Richie Savong with the California Department of Insurance. It reads, "I would like this comment to be read into the council read to the council during the public comment period, please." Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Richie Sioong, and I serve as an outreach analyst with the California Department of Insurance. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I'm calling to respectfully request your support for a package of wildfire recovery and insurance reform bills currently under consideration at the state capital. These measures are authored by Assembly Members Mike Gibson, Lisa Calderon, and Senator Steve Padilla, and they are focused on addressing ongoing recovery challenges in wildfire impacted communities across California. The first bill, AB1795, authored by Assembly Member Mike Gibson, would establish clear public health standards for smoke damaged homes. After a wildfire, many homes may appear structurally sound, but still contain hazardous smoke contamination. Without clear standards, homeowners often face delays, disputes, and uncertainty regarding remediation and insurance coverage. This bill creates clarity, protects public health, and helps streamline recovery. The second bill, SB876, authored by Senator Steve Padilla, strengthens disaster recovery protections and expands living expense coverage. Families displaced by wildfire are often out of their homes for extended periods. This measure helps ensure residents have adequate coverage for temporary housing and related costs, reducing financial hardship during a time of crisis. The third bill, AB1680, authored by Assembly Member Lisa Calderon, reforms and increases accountability within the fair plan. As more Californians turn to the fair plan

due to insurance market instability, it is critical that the program operates with transparency, sustainability, and strong consumer protections. This bill aims to improve oversight and help stabilize the insurance market for wildfire impacted communities. Together, these measures are designed to speed recovery, reduce coverage gaps, increase accountability, and strengthen long-term community resilience. Local government support is is incredibly important in advancing policies that directly impact residents. I respectfully ask for your consideration and support. I'm happy to provide fact sheets on each of these bills along with a brief survey. And I would also welcome the opportunity to deliver a short 10-minute presentation at a future council meeting to provide a legislative update and answer any questions. Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your continued commitment to protecting your community. Thank you very much. Uh in city manager, if you can please look into all those and get back to the city council once you collected all the data that you need. Thank you very much. Public period is now closed. We will now move on. Is there any conflict of interest from any of our council? We're not at the um Oh, you have a conflict of interest for item 13?

Okay. Uh Nia, have you um spoke to Mr. Casey about that? I h I have not directly, but I have spoken with the interim city manager about that particular item. Okay. So, you have a conflict on item number 13. Thank you, Mr. Casey. Okay. for mayor. Just quick point of clarification, there isn't in speaking with the interim city manager, we don't believe that there is an actual financial conflict of interest that would require a recusal for purposes of a financial conflict of interest. If the council member chooses to recuse himself from the item on a perceived conflict of interest, that's a different matter.

Okay. Thank you very much for that information. Thank you, Mr. Casey. We are now moving on to the appointments for boards and commissions. This item is for measure H, citizens oversight committee interviews and appointments. And I believe our clerk, Alan Martin, will be introducing this item.

Thank you, Mayor and Councel. Uh, as you know, we have two seats that are becoming vacant on the Measure H committee effective uh June 30th. We'll have two seats that expire. Uh we conducted a recruitment that ran March 1st through March 31st. We did receive three applications. Um all three applicants have been notified about tonight's meeting and given the information um to prepare themselves for the interview. Um with that said, I will turn that over to council. Um I don't I know some of them are here in person. There may be some online.

Thank you very much. We will now go ahead and open this to public comment. Is there any members of the public that would like to make a comment on this item? Please stand up. Seeing none, we'll go ahead and bring this back. Is there I believe there's Did you have a comment, Councilwoman? You have a question. Go ahead. if you can go ahead and ask the question if it's

um well I noticed like one of the current members had stated that she had submitted an application and been in contact with you with the forms and stuff and I didn't see their name on here or their application and I also see that they were in the crowd. So that's where I just wanted to get a point of understanding on what happened. Sure. So on February 26th I believe was the date. February 26th, I notified uh both members that currently have the seat that it that's expiring um and let them know that their seat is expiring effective June 30th. Um that we're conducting the um application process March 1st through 31st. I provided them with the application in that email. Um one of the members got back to me um stating why he would not be reapplying. Um I did not hear back from the other uh individual. Um although that individual did email me, I believe it was last week, letting me know that um if I understood her email correctly, she didn't read all the way through the email. Um and also called again this morning to see when she could apply next, which I informed her that we will have three seats come vacant. Um I believe it's June 30th, 2028.

Um is this person in the audience? You said council, I saw you. Yes. Okay. Who is the Who is the applicant? Who is the person in the audience? Angela Huerta. And she was one of our previous measure age committee members. Correct. Okay. Correct. Well, I think you know I'm going to have to give her an opportunity to come up here and and we'll reopen the public comment section. Miss Werta, could you please come up here? I would like to hear from you.

Hi council members. Hi Mayor, Vice Mayor. Um to be honest um um my husband has become ill and had to have surgery April 3rd and so most of March um I was preparing for surgery. Um I wear many hats in the community and I uh had to designate those jobs to other people so I can take time off to help him during his recovery. Um, and the email I was confused as to whether I needed to fill out uh the form 700 again, which I did. And I believe I took it the last day to be honest. And um then we went off for surgery. So I'm getting reaclimated with my jobs and my hats again. And I wanted to reach out and I did this morning to get clarification of what happened. And so I am still interested in holding the seat if I would have the chance. Thank you.

So, so initially you would you would wish to be reappointed. Is that what you're telling me? So if I understand correctly, you're saying you you initially thought the form 700 was the application based emails you received and you did submit that by the deadline and you reached out to Fallen about that. Is that what I'm hearing? But it so happened there was another application. Okay. And I may have overlooked it because again I've been uh the month of the month of March was very um fast for me. Okay. Do we have the application? Did we receive the application from her when she realized it wasn't the 700?

The application um that she is speaking of is the form 700 that she submitted um the last day that it was due, not the application for the measure H committee. Okay. Well, what it sounds like, uh, Angela, you wish to be reappointed to the position, correct? Yes. And with that information, I I will motion to reappoint you to the measure H committee. Thank you. I would still like to do the interview questions, but I am open to adding her to the list um to be reappointed or be considered for reappoint. Thank you. I

will hold my motion until after the interviews. Thank you very much. the council question as to whether or not you want to I guess the three options would be to reopen the application period in order to accept additional application.

Would that would that be more clear more more cleaner? I think it might be advisable if that's the council's wish. I don't believe that there are there's a specific rule that precludes the council from making such an appointment today. But I think I I think the easiest cleaner thing would be to reopen the application period and extend it to allow um the the individual to apply and potentially anybody else who may be interested in cleaner. Yes. But what about uh for the three individuals that are here this evening?

The council can continue on with the interviews and and make a determination if you want to extend the consideration period for appointment as well. Again, essentially we would be re if we were the table, we would redo right the process again. We'll have to interview them again. Yeah, you you could continue with your interview process tonight as scheduled or you can continue it in order to extend the in order to application process.

But then just to clarify, if we tabled it tonight and interviewed the three here, we're only filling one vacancy because we're we're going to allow the applicant to reapply for their seat. So we're we're still only appointing one individual. And that that's where I think would it'd be probably cleaner if we table it and open it up so that way there's two vacant positions to be the two vacancies. Yeah. Council, go ahead, council.

Thank you, mayor. Um, I do appreciate Angela coming to the podium and and sharing what happened with the situation, but I believe it kind of gets messy if we table this and allow for the application process to be reopened. Uh we did have an I don't remember if it's for planning commission or measure H. We had an individual at one point that couldn't make the interview because of a family emergency and uh we continued through with the interviews anyways. So unfortunately um I think that it would ultimately be fair to the community that we move forward with these interviews um and in the future there could be another opportunity for that position to be open. Vice Mayor, were you pressing your button? Go ahead.

I was I just I remember the incident that uh Council Member Otter was speaking about as well and I believe it wasn't a family emergency. They were on vacation and that Fallon had reached out to them and let them know when it was and they still proceeded with that vacation and they did not attempt to join via Zoom at the time either. Um I am I'm open to hearing the interview process this evening uh and filling the positions if we feel it. But if the decision is to table it, I I could support that as well. Mr. Casey had pressed his button. We'll come back to you, council. Go ahead, Mr. Casey. Go ahead, sir.

Yeah, I got to push that button. Unfortunately, uh the we had some rules in place and they weren't followed. we open ourselves up to make changes as we go along. So, I couldn't I can't support tableabling it and I think we should move forward tonight with the party is here. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Casey. Councilwoman

and just for clarification and maybe Fallon can correct me if I'm wrong. I think it was an individual who was going to interview um it wasn't the vacation, it was someone else that had called last minute and said they couldn't make it. and if they could reschedule their interview and we had said no. Thank you. That that is correct. It was the last planning commission um interviews that were conducted around November December of last year um and one of the applicants emailed um the day of the interviews because there was a family emergency that had come up.

Thank you very much. Well, I think that it would it would be unfair to Angela to be put in a position where she can't reapply. She's already on the measure she was on the measure H committee and I'd be open to uh table this item to the next meeting. That is my motion. Mayor clarification. The motion is to table this item in order to allow

and to open up the application process. Yes. That is my motion. No second. Motion dies. We will proceed. I was just thinking, you know, she kind of think, you know, um it sounds like she submitted an application, just the wrong application for her position because it sound like there was some confusion. I don't necessarily not want to consider the ones that I have before me because they did follow the process. My only concern is that my understanding from is from what she said is that she submitted the application just the wrong form. and that's my only concern with that. Um, I still want to move forward at least with one of the positions. I do think that she should have an opportunity to submit the correct form for the applications and she mixed up the wrong form. That's my only concern since she did attempt to submit the form. Um, but it was the wrong form and it wasn't correct it or communicated to her effectively that it was the wrong form. That's just my concern with the situation. Other than that, I still want to move forward with something with what's on the agenda and the ones that took the time and did it correctly.

Thank you very much. Vice Mayor, city clerk, you stated that you reached out to one individual and that they informed you they weren't going to reapply. Did you also reach out to this individual to ask if they were considering application again? Yes, I reached out to both individuals. Um, one of them replied as to why they were not reapplying or one of them replied to the email stating why they're not reapplying for their seat. Um, and as for the form 700, that was due April 1st, which is the date that Miss Hwarta submitted that. Um, and it was a form that was due at that time.

Was there any communication stated from her that she was not going to reply or did you follow up after not uh receiving confirmation one way or the other? I did not follow up. It's not typical to if I don't hear back. Um, Miss Huerta did email me last week um stating that um she got the email but did not read it all the way through.

Okay. Shall we continue? Okay. So, tonight we have three applicants. I'll start with the first applicant. That'll be Mr. Moore. Could you please step up to the podium, sir? Welcome, sir. We have five questions for you and each council member has a question right in front of them labeled with their names. We'll start with the first question. Mr. Casey, go ahead, sir. Mr. more. What is the purpose and goal of measure H?

The purpose is to supplement the resources for our public safety departments. As you know, in November of 2007, series voters passed measure H, which is the half cent sales tax increase, which is to fund additional public safety services that were solely needed to provide protection and service to our community. The intent of the voter-approved Measure H ordinance was to channel Measure H funds exclusively for the purpose of improving the public safety services of the city of Syria's police and fire divisions and those funds were not to be used to supplant the existing level of the city's general fund expenditures for police and fire. Upon passage of the Measure H initiative, the Syracuse City Council appointed the Measure H oversight committee as required by the ordinance to ensure that revenues derived from this special tax are expended in accordance with the provisions of the voter approved measure H.

Thank you. Second question, thank you and I appreciate you being here tonight. Should you be chosen, what do you see your role being on the committee? Well, with the committee being responsible for conducting annual revenues reviews of the expenditures made under the halfsent public safety sales tax, my role will be to ensure transparency and accountability through this process to ensure that the expenditures are utilized as intended. Third question.

Thank you, Mr. more for being present. Please tell us about yourself and what you feel best qualifies you to serve on the Measure H Citizens Oversight Committee.

Um, as as a lifelong resident of series, I raised my family here and I'm retired police officer with over 20 years of service to the series Police Department. I care deeply about this community and I worked diligently when this measure was passed in 2007 as I knew our community needed these additional resources. I'm a trained researcher. I have an AA degree in criminal justice, a bachelor's degree in political science. In my career in the law enforcement, I served in the patrol division as a field training officer as a forensic interviewer, hostage negotiator, air officer, and school resource officer, just to name a few. I'm also a dedicated member of my community, having served um a number of community programs. As a retiree, I have the time to dedicate to the measure H committee to ensure I am well versed on the materials and prepared for all the meetings. Fourth question.

Good evening, Randy. As an advisory committee responsible to make recommendations to the council, the final decision-making process is held by the council. Please describe any experience you have in advisory committee and how you would carry out your duties. Well, having have served my community both professionally as a member of law enforcement, but I've also served the community as a whole. I am an active member with the Series Lions Club where I've been a member over 25 years and I have held almost every single leadership role on their board of directors and its advisory capacities. I have served on Siri Street Fair Committee for over 20 year 20 years which is in fact an adi an advisory role and I still serve on the series high athletic booster club and to support the youth. I'm very clear on the role of an advisory committee to ensure that information is received and processed but understanding that the larger voting body being you will make any and all final decisions. Mr. Moore, do you have any questions for us relating to the application to be a member of the measure H citizens oversight committee?

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. My question is and after what has transpired this evening um is whether a decision will be made tonight based on the applicants presented before you or if the if the body isn't satisfied with whom has already applied will the process be reopened again for additional applications to be considered. Thank you for the question. I I believe we'll answer that question as soon as we finish with the other two applicants. Thank you for the question, sir. Thank you. Appreciate that. Next applicant is Gallen Guzman.

Are you going to um you need to ask? Should I say we're going to ask you questions? My apologies. What? Are you Are you okay? Do you need a break or Oh, let me just get the questions ready. Don't worry about it. You have time, sir. Okay, I'm ready. All right. First question. Mr. Guzman, what do you think the purpose and goal of Measure H is?

I'm going to respond like staff does. So, thank you for your question, Mr. Casey. Um, so the purpose of uh Measure H, what was uh well, what is Measure H? Measure H is a half percent sales tax that was passed by voters that was presented to voters back in 2007 and it passed uh so it essentially gave well it gives funds to police and fire uh to use for salaries uh and benefits uh as well as equipment uh to not replace general fund uh money but to supplement I guess. Um so what else? What was I going to say? Uh and then 10 years later back uh in 2017 um it was decreased. Um let's see. And yeah, that's it for now.

Thank you. Second question.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So the the goal of the measure H oversight committee is basically the definition oversight. So reviewing um reviewing the expedentures of of police and fire. Um and one of the meetings has to be after the annual uh the financial audit has been done. Um which it hasn't. So for uh 20 fiscal year 24 to 25. So, not sure when the turnaround for that uh financial audit's going to be, but I'm not sure if uh current members are that are currently on the on the committee are going to be able to fulfill their duties before the end of the year.

Second question,

should you be chosen, what do you see your role being on the committee? Oh, I guess that one ties into the first question that I answered afterwards, but uh basically to oversee the um what fire and police have been spending uh measure H tax funds on and then to make sure they align with the um annual what is it? Public safety expedenture plan. Um, the last one that was that's on the website, it's it's outdated and I think it's like 2019. So, yeah.

Third question. Thank you, Mr. Guzman. Please tell us about yourself and what you feel best qualifies you to serve on the Measure H Citizens Oversight Committee.

Uh, thanks for your question. So, um, this is a question that was on the application. Um, so I'm just going to read it pervatum. You guys have it in front of you guys, but um, let's see. I have a strong sense of justice, honesty, and ethics. I'm a family nurse practitioner, and nurses have been on um, the most trusted uh, profession for the for the last 24 years. Um let's see. Additionally, I have a strong pattern uh recognition skills, have critical thinking and data analysis skills. Um um and then lastly, when something feels off um unjust, I make sure to voice my concerns and not afraid to challenge the status quo and ask why.

Thank you. Fourth question. As an advisory committee responsible for making recommendations to the council, the final decision-making process is held by the council. Please describe any experiences you have in an advisory committee and how you will carry out your duties. Um, so I've never served on an advisory committee before, but I was a class rep for my nursing cohort when I was in undergrad. Um so I we would talk with like professors and uh discuss like findings or and then present them to um staff. So essentially I feel like it would be the same but presenting it to the city council in this matter and um yeah.

Do you have any questions for us relating to the application to be a member of the measure H citizens oversight committee?

No. Thank you very much. The third application is John John Fed are here. Is he online? John Fiad, if you're online, if you could please raise your hand. Okay, moving on. Okay, council. We have heard all the applicants except for one who did not show up and one that has showed up who has interest in being appointed. Just have any questions. Council, no comments or questions? Okay, I do have a question. Is the council interested in appointing two people here tonight or is the council only interested in appointing one?

I'm interested in appointing two tonight. Motto, M. Vice Mayor,

I'm interested in doing one. Councilwoman Vera, I'm interested in one. And that's just based on the responses tonight. I don't think I was comfortable. Okay. Mr. Casey, I'm interested in appointing two. And I'm interested in appointing one. Okay. With that being said, the best and quickest way to do this, I believe, is by a motion. Make a motion to appoint uh Randy Moore to the measure H oversight committee. Second that. Roll call, please.

Before we do roll call, do should we be including in that motion to open up recruitment? I think we take one one step at a time. So the motion is is okay for appointment to one vacancy and then we can get direction from the council on the second vacancy. Roll call. Council member Casey. Sure. Just to remind the council, we we we don't have another meeting in May. And it's not that I'm against uh Mr. Moore, but I abstain. Council member Vieira. Yes. Council member Otto.

Sorry, I just need clarification. So this is this motion is specific to Mr. Moore. It's not specific to the entire correct interview. Yes. Yes. Vice Mayor Martinez. I Mayor Lopez. Yes. Motion carries four uh 40 with one abstension. And then I will motion to continue the second position to another council meeting and opening up the application again. I'll second. Mayor, mayor, if I I may to get some clarity on the motion, a specific time frame. I think that's probably what your city clerk would

Sure. City clerk, uh, how much time would you need for that? I would think that I mean, generally we do 30 days, so I'd like to stay consistent with that. Sounds good. Um, we won't have another Measure H meeting until September after next week. So, I think that would allow for plenty of time. Yeah, sounds good. We'll include that in my motion. There was a first and a second. Roll call, please. So, just to be clear, it's to reopen the recruitment and to just come back at a future date. Correct. No date specific. As long as you have time. Perfect. Uh, Council Member Casey, no. Council member Vieiraa,

yes. The second was uh, Vice Mayor. Council member Otero, no. Vice Mayor Martinez. Hi, Mayor Lopez. Yes. Motion carries 32. And thank you for all the applicants that showed up here today. We appreciate your service. Mr. Mayor, can I request a fiveminute recess? Yes, you may. And you have you received it. We're taking a five minute

Josh, is Rosinda out there? Do you see her? Ladies and gentlemen, we're just about to get started. We are just waiting for our council and everybody can please have a seat as soon as you get an opportunity. We really do appreciate you staying. And welcome back everyone. We are now moving on to consent calendar. All matters listed on the consent calendar are considered routine in nature and will be enacted by a single motion unless otherwise requested by an individual council, excuse me, individual council member or public for special consideration. Otherwise, a recommendation of staff will be enacted enacted upon by a roll call vote. Is there anyone in the council that would like to pull an item from the consent calendar? And we have councilwomano. Yes,

I have a few items I'd like to pull. Item number eight, items number 11 through 13, and item number 15. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have to pull 15. Sounds good to me. Anybody else from the council? Seeing none, any members of the public that would like to pull an item from the council, please step up to the podium and state your name. 11, 12, and 13 have already been pulled, sir, by Miss Otto. Shirley Rogers, number 11.

Number 11 has already been pulled by Councilwoman Otto. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. And we'll take this back to council for a motion. Make a motion that we approve items 1 through nine and sorry, 1 through 7, 9 and 10. Second. Roll call, please. Council member Casey, yes. Council member Vieiraa, yes. Council member Otto, yes. Vice Mayor Martinez, hi. Mayor Lopez, yes. Motion carries 5-0. Okay. Item number eight. Thank you, Mayor. Um, this question is I don't know for Chief or maybe our interim city manager. I just want to make sure that the POA had a chance to review the SRO contract.

Thank you for the question. Excuse me. Thank you for the question. Um, no, this is uh renewing an existing contract and uh we don't normally um involve them in that. Uh there's never been any issues though. Thank you. And then uh my next question is so I know in the contract uh CUSD will cover them this they will cover the SRO's working events and things like that but if there are additional officers that are requested to work events such as a football game um is CUSD paying for those overtime costs or costs in general?

Yes. any anything over I believe it's 186 days um any overtime that might be incurred by football games or proms they will pay that overtime. Thank you. Any additional comments or questions for the council? We'll move this to the public. Any comments from the public in regards to item number eight? Any hands raised? There are no hands raised. Bring this item back for a motion. Make a motion that we approve item number eight of the consent calendar. I'll second. Roll call. Council member Casey. Yes. Council member Vieiraa. Yes.

Council member Otto. Yes. Vice Mayor Martinez. Hi. Mayor Lopez. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Item number 11. Councilwoman. Thank you, Mayor. Um, what I'm the comment I'm about to make, it's actually going to be for the other two items, but in item number 11, I did see that the incorrect donation form was used, uh, there was an update on October 25th. So, I was a little bit confused about that. Um, and I just wanted to make sure that before the donation is approved or the check is given to these organizations, um, that the form will be corrected. finance.

Good evening, mayor, council members. My understanding is that the update that it was done on the donation request form, it was uh it was a technical edit to ensure that we had a box for tracking internal for internal use only. So we can checkbox the um the different documents that were needed in order to have the packet completed. So it was just a technical edit for internal tracking.

Okay. I didn't bring I don't have the form up here. I don't know if you have it up. I thought there was a few more. I know that I think the title of the form is al also different and I don't know if there's any other lines that were amended. Thank you, Council Member Otto. There are actually two separate forms. What you have in your packet is the donation award agreement, and that is the most recent version, which was updated on October 6th of 2025. Separate from this agreement, but a related document is the actual application form that the applicant would would complete. That is the form that was outdated. That was a form that was updated, I believe, on October 14th. And then again on October 28th, the form that was completed for three these three donations, the application was used using the October 14th version, not the October 28th version, and that's the one that would be needed to be used uh in future requests. But the one that you have in your packet is the actual most recent donation award agreement. And just for clarification on the um on the form, the request is by the council member, correct? I'm trying to pull it up here in the agenda packet. I don't know if you have that handy. I just want to make sure the request states what council member has requested the the donation.

I do not have the application in the packet or with me. When the applications are submitted, I believe that the council member request is on there. It appears it appears to be on the staff report. Okay. But the so this form that we have right here in our packet, it says donation award agreement and then you have the uh organizer's signature. But does the finance department have the request form with the council member's signature for to document who requested it? Which council member?

Yes, that's that form. It's the the form that initiates this donation. um staff report to to brought forward to the council. So, is there any reason why we won't I feel like for transparency that should be included with this packet as well? Um I don't Is that going to Can we add that to the to the minutes?

Well, it clearly says here in the resolution who the request was made by. So, there is transparency clearly right here in front of you. I understand, but I need to see the request form in order to approve something because in the packet it shows that this is the donation award agreement. I feel like the public and the council should see the full request if I may jump in. So, Council Member Otto, are you requesting that going forward whenever there's a council member donation request included in the agenda packet that both the donation request form and the donation award agreement are included with the item?

Yeah, I think that would be best. Okay. Neither one of those forms indicate what council member is requesting the donation, but it sounds like finance tracks that on their end. So the I'm just going to pull it up here. Um the donation form has requested by and you sign and print and date. That would be the council member's signature because they're requesting it. And that is the donation request form dated 122825. I'm sorry. Yes, you are correct.

Yeah. So, that form I feel like is important to go along with the agenda item when the council is reviewing and approving and going forward we can certainly include that. Okay. Thank you. I think that it would only be fair if the council has a say in that, not just a request and such. Nubia, is that something that needs to be motioned or is that kind of going above and beyond? I I would say that it's up to the council what information you feel is necessary in order to make an take an action on the request. I don't believe that there's any information in the forms that would need to be redacted.

Well, that that information whatever information would need to be redacted, we would redact before bringing it for council consideration. But I think it's a council decision as to how much documentation you you would need to consider. I think for these requests, it's really just the two forms that we have the universe of of documents.

I would just like to keep the same. I don't think that it's necessary. So, but the thing is that on the form, the request form, I think as council members, we have to make sure the coun that an actual council member requested it. It didn't come from the organization. This is why I said a while back, why are we opening this up to council members being able to request it if the organizations can just request it? So, everybody chose to have the council members be in charge of requesting it. So, I think it's important for us to see this full form and have the council member sign on the request line. Thank you, council member. Council member Rosinda, you had a comment.

Um, I just had a question because is this different than the form when we approved the other ones? Because this isn't the first time we've approved requests. We approved one for the the veterans one. Okay, we've approved one. And is this the exact same form or is and the same process? then I think we should be sticking with what we've been doing from here on out and not change it based on council members. I think we need to do exactly what we did with Jim Casey when he brought that forward. Okay, I will go ahead and if there's any other comments from the council, I'll go ahead and open it up to the public. Oh, go ahead, Councilwoman.

I once again, we're just making up our own rules. It's not fair to the public. It's not fair to all members up here on the council. If there's a form that's required for us to fill out and then there's a donation award agreement that's completed by finance, the council and the public should have all of the forms present when we're making a decision up here. Thank you very much. And just a point of order, we are not discussing the process. We are obviously asking questions and councilwoman, you have some great questions. I appreciate that. Um, before we move on to any additional comments by the council, anybody from the public would like to make a comment, you state your name.

We're talking about 11. I would like to know, do we collect any tax from South Modesto? I believe South Modesto Business United, the organization is at the flea market. So the I believe the answer would be yes. I think they're not called self. They're called tennis laws now. So we don't get taxed at South. I said I I believe we do. You believe we do? Okay. I just wonder. And if I'm wrong, you know, sorry about that. Given money to Modesto. It is. No, it is no and diamond us to death.

Thank you, Mr. Next question. uh day prediceries. I'm just going to on all three of them. You can vote on how you'd like. Um, I realize uh this money goes to a worthy cause and and they probably use it to good use, but I it's kind of hard to um have series donating a lot of money when they're in a fiscal crisis uh for so long. Uh, I realize that's only a kick in the bucket, but it all it all adds up.

Thank you very much, sir. Is there anybody else in the public?

Hello, my name is Suga. I was hoping he was going to go first cuz I I get nervous up here. Uh, but I just wanted to say, you know, as being part of the community, it's it's very important that we get the support from the city. And it's not so much as the money because, you know, as a company, I donate a lot of money. I mean, I was I was hoping the guy with the palletas was going to stick around cuz I wanted to talk to him about donate donating to that as well because it's everything that we do is for the community, you know, and I I'm personally talking about number 12 because most of the girls that I got on my team came from wreck from CYSO and that's why I don't mean to cut you off, but if you want to talk about item number 12, you're going to have to wait until Oh, I thought I thought she was bringing up the

I think we're just talking about number 11 right now. Oh, okay. I'll sit back down there. We'll call you back up. I just want to make sure that you don't lose any of your time if you want to talk about item number 12. Anybody else? If not, I believe there's a hand raised right now. Tony Matrical, go ahead and unmute your mic. Hello. Can you all hear me? We can hear you, sir.

Tony Madro here. Um on behalf of Sal Modesto Businesses United, I'm available to answer questions about um our nonprofit organization and the work we do in the community which is available uh all the community cultural events that we do which are free and open to the public um for our community events and we have huge attendance from all parts of the county including series and um uh some of our major community events um are held within series city limits such as the events that we hold at this at the Elver Matito Flea Market on Crows Landing Road. And this is our events we we pay for all the appropriate uh uh applicable uh local or or state sales taxes uh as required, you know, to be in compliance. Um we uh we're a nonprofit organization been in existence for over 15 years and as you can imagine uh you know the uh the economic recovery from the pandemic has not been fully realized here in the central valley and so local nonprofits which you know I consider us frontline services providers um you know we feel the pain and the pinch um uh very much just like local small businesses do and um we appreciate uh the mayor's consideration and the council's consideration of this uh donation request and um I'm available to answer questions.

Thank you very much. Any other additional hands raised? There are no other hands raised on Zoom. Okay, we'll bring this item back. Motion. I'll make a motion approving the donation of $1,000 to South Modesto Business United SMBU as requested by Mayor Javier Lopez. I'll second. Get a roll call, please. Council member Casey, no. Council member Vieira, yes. Council member Otto, yes. Vice Mayor Martinez, hi. Mayor Lopez, yes. Motion carries 41. Item number 12. Council woman, I don't have anything else for item number 12. I was addressed on item number 11. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there anybody in the public that would like to make a comment on item number 12? Intent. You're doing great. Like like I was saying that, you know, I'm very connected with the community right now. Um most of the kids are came from CYO on the that are on on Rush now. And those same girls that we taken that came from Wreck, they just won a tournament in a series going against gold players. They took first place. Uh right now they're they're going to the finals May 30th for the state cup to go for first place in Sacramento, you know. And that's why I think it's so important for for us to focus on sports because these girls that were just thinking about doing wreck now have an opportunity to go to college. they got something to look forward and it's not just all about boys or you know there's not really much to do here in series and and sports is one of the major things and being part of the community so you know this is important and if you guys can get me in contact with the the petta guy with the low riders you know I'll help that I will help with that as well and then you know chief knows I'm I'm going to help out with the community as well so this all goes hand in hand I appreciate it thank you

thank you very Now, I know that there was a hand raised, but I'm sure that that was from earlier, I think. So, I I lowered it, but it it went back up, so I'm not sure. Okay, we'll just move on because I believe that's what it is. And, uh, council, do you have any additional comments? Um, I believe, yeah, we're closing public comment, coming back to council. Go ahead, Councilwoman. Thank you. Um, congratulations to your team. I think that's fantastic and I fully support in helping our youth and especially if they're going to Sacramento. That's one of a kind opportunity. That doesn't happen every day to everyone. And I fully support this.

I will say that, you know, it's said before, it's difficult. That isn't enough. And and you're absolutely right. It is a drop in the bucket. $25,000 allocated to the community. And I think that every single person that comes back with a request, you know, it's it's helping their organization and also helping the city of series and helping those young girls be successful with uniforms and all those great things. And as a coach, I think that it's it's wonderful. And I also back to item number 11, you know, South Modesto Business United. I believe they just changed their name to Stannis Loss Business United just because they realize how important that the community is and that those events are very heavily attended by this city council and I think that is very important. So, uh, with that, any additional comments or motion?

I'll make a motion approving the donation of $1,000 to series Rush as requested by Mayor Javier Lopez. I'll second that. A roll call, please. Council member Casey, yes. Council member Vieiraa, yes. Council member Otto, yes. Vice Mayor Martinez, hi. Mayor Lopez, yes. Motion carries 5-0. Item number 13. Councilwoman, I'm sorry. That's Oh, I I need to excuse myself. That is great. Memberies 50 years and I'm also the treasurer.

Okay, Mr. Casey will be excusing himself because he believes that he needs to. Thank you, Mr. Casey. We will call you back.

You can go ahead. Um, my comments were going to be the same as item number 11. Okay. Thank you very much. Go ahead and open up to the public. Is anybody in the public that would like to make a comment on item number 13?

Yes. Uh, thank you all very much, council members, mayor. My name is Frank Bell. I'm with the local Knights of Columbus chapter here, and I brought some of my friends here with me tonight. and we just wanted to basically first off we wanted to thank you for the consideration. Uh number two I just wanted to talk a little bit about what we do for the community. Uh not only that uh recently we just had a fundraiser and we were able to give five scholarships to uh students that go to Stansaw State University. So we were able to to put them through school partially. We also do a lot of uh fundraisers uh pancake breakfast uh fish fry and and all that money. We clothe a lot of people during the winter time and we also be able we also feed a lot of the people during the winter and the summertime too. So uh so that's what this this group is basically all about. So again we just wanted to thank you so much for the opportunity and uh we look forward to keep to do these things more and more and more as many of us volunt and we're all volunteers. So thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Any comments from the council?

Go ahead councilwoman. Thank you, mayor. Um, I appreciate what you do. I know there's several people that I'm aware of that are part of the club. I think it's great. I do want to be invited to the pancake breakfast. That's one of my favorite. Um, yes, just want to let you know, please invite me. Um, I don't eat fish, but I love pancakes. Um, but I definitely think that's worthy cause of supporting, especially with a lot of the free stuff that you offer through community and those that are in need without having to ask. And a lot of times it is when you're in difficult situations. It is very hard to put ask for help and the fact that you have no strings attied and they can come forward whether it's a free meal or just a jacket during the cold weather or new pair of socks. Those are very critical and crucial to our community and I appreciate it and I fully support this as well. Thank you.

And before you make a motion, Vice Mayor, I would just like to say, you know, thank you for what you do for the community. It's very important that organizations like yourself were long lasting to continue to even bring in younger people into your organization. I learned a lot from the moment that you invited me to that fish fry. I realize that I enjoy fish more than I realize that I do. And with that being said, I will be supporting this item. I'll make a motion approving the donation of $1,000 to the Knights of Columbus Council 13104 as requested by Vice Mayor Daniel A. Martinez. I'll second that. Get a roll call, please. Council member Casey abstain. Council member Vieiraa, yes. Council member Otto, yes. Vice Mayor Martinez, hi. Mayor Lopez,

yes. Motion carries 4 with one abstension.

Thank you very much and congratulations to everyone. We are now moving on to Oh, I'm sorry. Let's actually let's call Mr. Jim back because I would hate to move forward without him. Appreciate that, Vice Mayor. Now we are moving to our public hearings. This is item number 14. City of Siri's workforce vacancy recruitment and retention efforts. And this will be introduced by human resource director Delila Vasquez. Good evening, mayor, council members. Dila Vasquez, human resources director. The presentation before you is intended to satisfy the obligation of government code 3502.3, which requires the city to annually report on the status of city vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts. recommendations before you is to receive the presentation on the city of Siri's workforce vacancies, recruitment, and retention efforts.

In September of 2024, the governor signed Assembly Bill 2561 into law to amend the Meer Millius Brown Act, commonly known as the MMBA, which governs labor relations between employers and employees. The law was enacted on January 1st of 2025 to address the issues of job vacancies in local government which adversely affects the delivery of public service and employees workload. Among other requirements, the bills mandate the bill mandates public agencies to conduct a public hearing to present the status of vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts during a public hearing before the agency's governing body at least once per fiscal year prior to the adoption of the next fiscy year budget and to identify any necessary changes to policies, procedures, and recruitment activities that may lead to obstacles in the hiring process. Additionally, if the number of vacancies meets or exceeds 20% of the total number of authorized full-time positions in a particular bargaining unit, the employee bargaining unit may request additional information. Before you is an overview of the recruitment process. Once a vacancy is identified, the hiring manager submits a request to open a recruitment to fill the position. HR creates a job announcement and posts the recruitment on our city website and various other social media platforms. All applications are screened after the final final deadline deadline and applicants are notified of the results. Candidates who meet the minimum requirements are invited to participate in examinations and an eligibility list is established based on their scores. Upon selection of the candidate, a conditional job offer is provided and the candidate completes the necessary pre-employment testing such as background or medical

examinations. A start date is determined upon successful completion of the pre-employment process and a final job offer is provided. The recruitment process is followed in accordance with the civil service rules. As of December 31st of 2025, the city had 167 allocated budgeted positions. This figure does not include the six elected official positions. Excluding these position provides a more accurate reflection of the city's active recruitment efforts and results in a total funded staffing allocation of 161 funded positions. The recruitment and retention of police officers has become a growing concern for law enforcement agencies at local, state, and federal levels. Recognizing these challenges, the city engaged in good faith negotiations with the Peace Officers Association and successfully reached a four-year successor agreement. This agreement reflects a shared commitment to strengthening recruitment and retention efforts while continuing to support our personnel and the community they serve. As a result, police officer association vacancy rate dropped from 22.22% on December 31st of 2024 to 16.8 on December 31st of 2025 and continues to decline. Looking back at 2025, the city had 27 vacancies. We posted 26 job openings after receiving over 935 applications. and we successfully filled 22 vacancies. The medium time to fill vacancies was 77 77 days and the percentage of vacancies filled was internal candidate um with internal candidates was 22.22%. Vacancy data for 2025 reflects 13

vacancies were the result of voluntary separation. Six vacancies were due to promotions. One vacancy was a result of council authorizing the reclassification of the administrative secretary secretary change to a planner tech and 14 vacancies were the result of retirement or termination. The retention rate for 2025 is 98.7%. HR reviewed current policies, procedures, and recruitment practices. While we always look for improvement, no significant barriers or changes were identified at this time. The following strategies highlight how we are attracting and retaining a skilled workforce. For hard to recruit positions, we offer incentives for lateral transfers, including accelerated vacation acrruels and front-loaded leave balances to remain competitive and reduce ramp up time. We also use continuous recruitment for difficult to fill roles allowing us to maintain candidates um pools and streaming streamline hiring to support retention council approval longevity pay recognizing institutional knowledge and reducing turnover. We've also implemented an emer an employee recognition program acknowledging employees with five or more years of service to promote a positive workforce. culture. The city hosts events such as an end of the year celebration, summer barbecue, and other engagement activities. Additionally, we offer flexible work schedules when feasible to support employee well-being. Finally, we provide ongoing training to strengthen employee skills and organizational performance. That concludes my presentation and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you very much. Is there anybody in the audience would like to make a comment on this presentation? Please step out to the podium and state your name. And Guzman, so I have a question. I know that there was a high turnover rate in officers like a couple years ago, like 13 or 14. Uh did uh HR do exit interviews by chance? Um just make sure that we clarify that the statement is correct or incorrect whether it was 14. Asus, can you repeat that question? I'm saying just to verify that the number that he says is 14 that is correct or incorrect as a part of his question.

But if the chief of police who probably knows better step in u yeah I don't have an exact answer for you but I can tell you that we calculated that we lost 52 personnel over three years. Yeah. Um, as of right now, we're fully staffed. Okay. Uh, my question was if, uh, for the officers that were lost, uh, due to, um, the exit interviews, is there is there like exit interviews that were conducted? Yes, we are conducting exit interviews. Okay, that was it. Thanks. Thank you very much. Any additional comments from the public? body online.

There are no hands raised and there are no emails received. Bring this item back to council. Any additional comments or questions.

Um, thank you Delilah for the presentation and I'm glad to hear that the city offers that incentive of um maybe front-loading vacation or sick time or whatever it is. I think that's helpful to attracting um applicants. Thank you. Any additional comments? I don't think there's a motion required on this is strictly a presentation. Thank you very much. Moving on to item number 15. This is an ordinance of the city of city city of seriesir council amending chapter 10.17 section 101710 speed limits of series municipal code and reestablishing the prima. Am I pronouncing this correct? Fasc is that fast. The speed limits on various street segments in the city of series based on the 2026 engineering and traffic survey. And this will be presented by Michael Beltran which is our engineer director. Sir, did I pronounce that correct or was I off?

Which one? Uh the uh the way is pronounced is it prim prima or prim prima

primaasi. There you go. Okay. Thank you very much. You may continue sir. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Mike Beltran, director of engineering. Uh before you tonight is an ordinance which would reestablish the city's existing primaasy speed limits based on the completion of the city's 2026 engineering and traffic survey, also referred to as an ETS. Under California Vehicle Code sections 22357, 22358, and 40802, local agencies are required to maintain current engineering and traffic surveys in order for posted speed limits to remain enforceable through radar enforcement. The city retained advanced mobility group to complete a comprehensive ETS evaluating 43 street segments throughout the city. The study reviewed prevailing vehicle speeds, traffic volumes, collision history, roadway characteristics, and adjacent land uses in accordance with the California manual for uniform traffic devices and the California Vehicle Code. Based on the results of the survey, the consultant determined that the currently posted speed limits to remain uh that the currently posted speed limits remain appropriate and recommended maintaining all existing posted speed limits throughout the city. The ETS also incorporated provisions authorized under Assembly Bill 43 and California Vehicle Code section 22358.6, 6, which allow local agencies to consider additional roadway safety factors when establishing or maintaining speed limits, including conditions related to schools, parks, bicycle activity, pedestrian activity, collision history, and other safety considerations. Several roadway segments included in the ETS utilize those provisions to justify maintaining existing speed limits based on documented engineering and safety factors identified within the study.

Although no changes to posted speed limits are proposed tonight, adoption of the updated ordinance is necessary to maintain compliance with state law and preserve the city's ability to continue radar enforcement. Staff is recommending that council conduct a public hearing and introduce the first reading of the ordinance. And this concludes my presentation and I'll be happy to take any questions.

Thank you very much, sir. We're going to go ahead and open it up to the public. Is there any members of the public that would like to make a comment on this? Dave Pis series. Um, I've been I've talked about this at these other when we've done those studies before. I'm glad you're not going to change them. One bad thing is you have bad flow on main tur affairs and you and you what you do the pe there's a lot of people they start speeding through the neighborhoods and you wind up raising the speeds in the neighborhoods and lowering them in the thorough affairs when you ever if you ever get all these stupid lights sync like they should be at one time they were anymore anymore you I find myself taking going different ways. I don't speed like a lot of them. I might I might go a little fast, but not speed, but it's ridiculous when they uh when when they go through neighborhoods and they're not paying attention. I get a lot of them when I come up to they even run the stop signs if they get a chance. And the main thorough affair is they they pass in all different they'll pass traffic in in turning lanes and center center lane any way they can get get away with it. Uh because the flow is incorrect and it needs to improve. I don't know how you every now and then you talk about the about sinking the lights and stuff and I still want waiting for that especially the schools and stuff it's getting so bad especially the times when when the kids are going to school and

getting out getting out the traffic is really bad. Thank you Mr. Pratt. Anybody else in the audience would like to make a comment? Seeing no hands raised to bring this item back to the council for any additional comments, questions. Councilwoman,

thank you, mayor. Um, Mike, I just have a question. Um, does the city have any legal authority to review and reduce some of the speed limits by at least 5 miles hour for some of these streets? I know we've talked about in the past, um, but I was just wondering if that's something that can happen if the council wishes to review some of the streets.

So, thank you for your question, Councilwoman. Uh, yes, the the city does have the ability to lower those speed limits. Um, those speed limits are, you know, they are based on engineering judgment. Um, you know, and that would be done in conjunction with our traffic engineer, advanced mobility group. So if there is a street that uh you guys would like me to look at um I will look at it. I will discuss it with uh advanced mobility group. Uh if they believe that that is justified also we can write a quick little memo and then we would need to bring another ordinance back changing the speed limit of that uh roadway.

I have uh two suggestions. Uh, Booth Road from Hatch to Whitmore. Um, if we can lower that by five miles. Booth, there's a a park along Booth. Um, same thing with East Gate. If that can go down to 35, um, again, there's the curves and then approaching the park as well. I have concerns. Um, obviously people are going to push the speed limit, you know, probably almost 10 miles over uh this limit. So, if we can lower those down to five or less than, you know, 5 miles per hour, then that would be great.

I I will uh definitely take a look at those. Um, one thing I would just like to note, um, with speed limits, and I've said this uh before is driving is behavioral. Um, and so a lot of times, I mean, I like to exaggerate the point that we can put the speed limit down to 5 miles an hour. generally the ones that drive 40 50 55 miles an hour in a 40 or a 35 um are still going to do it uh that because that is their normal behavior. Um people that follow the speed limit tend to follow the speed limits um and we're always in constant communication uh with the police department regarding these types of situations so that we can act up enforcement also. So thank you. Thank you, Mike.

Councilwoman Vieira,

thank you. Yes, I do think we definitely need um to work on enforcement in a lot of key areas. Um but going back, if we were to change speed limits, that means we have to change signs and speeds if they're painted on the streets and stuff about what does that cost basically even per sign and how many signs would you need to do for example the area that she was discussing? So, um I haven't checked exactly how many signs are on those roadways. On probably on average, you're looking at about $2,000 per sign between the actual sign cost, which has to be um per the MUTCD, it has to be high reflectivity. There's certain requirements that that the signs need to have. Um and then we also have to pay our streets uh our streets personnel to go out, remove signs, replace signs, those types of things. So, it it's somewhere in the $1,500 to $2,000 per sign range.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mike, are there any fees associated with having that engineering firm revisit those two roads in particular and doing another study to see if it's even warranted having the speed limits changed? Um, I I would have to check with them. Uh, my guess right now, we actually have them. there are on call traffic engineer and they have a standing PO. So there could be some time that's associated with it. I wouldn't think that that time would be a whole bunch. I think um you know you're probably looking probably about a,000 maybe $2,000 at at most for have them for having them to take relook at those roads

in addition to the $2,000 per speed limit sign.

That is correct. That would just be the consultant's cost. I will just add that chief, you know, do you think that um it's warrant to possibly set up a speed trap in that area? I think anytime we can lower the speed limit on a problem area is probably best. Um but I'm not qualified to to make that. I think u um probably go through the company that does that for us. Chief, I have a question for you, sir. You said problem area. Is Is that area frequented with accidents or pedestrians being struck?

I don't know if uh Booth is a problem area per se as far as uh accidents or whatever. I've driven down both those roads and especially the park on Eastgate on that curve. That that is a potential problem that the slower people go there, the better. Uh, Councilwoman, with that said, is it possible to lower I thought we do have lower speed limits around roundabouts. Can we just look at maybe the roundabouts, so there's less fees associated and less impact to our budget.

So, so generally speaking, the the speeds are slower around roundabouts simply because you have to enter and exit a roundabout. Um, so not necess we have warning signs up that that will say, hey, maybe 15 miles an hour in a in a roundabout. Um, you know, but that's not a the legal speed limit is still the legally posted speed limit, not the warning speed limit. Um and so you know that's that is something roundabouts do you know prohibit generally broadside collisions which tend to be more deadly than um than a sideswipe collision in a roundabout those types of things. So round roundabouts definitely have their place uh in in places where broadside collisions could uh could be more frequent. City Manager. Quick question. Sir, if at all possible, just for information only, could you provide that to the information to the council and to Councilwoman Otero for before we make any decisions?

Which information? Information that she requested about uh bringing down the speed limit on those particular roads and how much the cost would be as well. Yes, we can do that. Okay. You'll be a point of order. Am I kind of jumping the gun here? Does it need to be a referral? Be a potential referral uh for as a as an aside so that it wouldn't impact your decision today. Today, at least that's what I'm hearing. It sounds like you want to look into it in the future for particular segments or just as a as a over. So that would be separate.

Absolutely. Um for clarification though, if it is a referral, do we have to go through this entire process again like the traffic survey speed survey or to reduce which is going to cost more money than if we just Yes. Because if I'm not mistaken and and Mike can correct me if I'm wrong, we have to make certain findings uh under the code in order to reduce it. And I don't think we're prepared to do that.

We we aren't prepared to do it tonight. Um, I will need to go and have a conversation with the traffic engineer. Um, there won't be any I mean, if it was if it's an exorbitant cost, I'm I'm I would let you guys know that before we did anything. Uh, but like I said, we have money on an open PO with our traffic engineer. Um, we we can we can address that and I think we can address it within the,000 $2,000 range. Um, as far as what we're looking at tonight, um, it would still be my recommendation that, uh, council approve what we have tonight and get it moving through the process because without this, technically, our police officers can't use radar to pull somebody over at that point. So, there's there's kind of a a two there there's a safety aspect to this, and then there's a a police officer public safety aspect to it. um that requires us to have this adopted in order for the our police department to use radar enforcement. Um but but I can check into into that um with our with our traffic consultants. They are very good. They're very reasonable. Um and I I'll have a conversation with with the city manager to make sure that he's good with me moving forward with these couple of uh evaluations which I don't think are going to be extensive by any means. So would Nubia just for just another question. So could we make a motion to approve this with the option of amending certain streets pending um review by engineer. My recommendation is since it's an ordinance that requires first and second reading and adoption is that you move forward with um introduction and first reading of this ordinance with direction to staff to look at particular segments. But that

should be considered separately. And so I think the larger point is we need this in place but we can still have staff work with the consultant to cost out the evaluation for those particular segments. Thank you. Any additional comments? Okay. Vice Mayor, motion to approve. Make a motion to approve item number 15. I'll second. Roll call, please. Council member Casey, yes. Council member Vieiraa, yes. Council member Otto, yes. Vice Mayor Martinez, hi. Mayor Lopez, yes.

Motion carries 5-0. Okay, now for the new business, the most important item of the day, our wonderful team at finance. Director Vanessa Portillo will be presenting the staff report on the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget overview and also council direction.

Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, mayor, council members. Vanessa Bertia, finance director. Um, tonight's presentation is a continuation to the April budget workshop and focuses on additional analysis requested by council, updated budget adjustments, and obtaining council direction for the fisc year 2027 proposed budget. In our agenda tonight, we will begin with a brief overview of the budget process timeline followed by a recap of the 2027 bud general fund budget workshop. And uh we will also provide some additional analysis and budget scenarios requested by council including police overtime, fire services, planning contracts, and funding scenarios for additional positions. Finally, staff is requesting council direction on how to proceed with the fiscical year 27 proposed budget for adoption in June. To briefly recap the process for the fiscical year 27 budget process, it began in January with the budget kickoff and department instructions. department submitted budget request followed by finance and the city manager review and the city held the budget workshop on April 21, 2026 and also presented the budget materials during the city council regular meeting on April 27, 2026. Tonight's meeting it is intended to provide additional information coming from the budget workshop and receive direction prior to our budget adoption in June. So as you can see in the chart, we are in the very last step prior to our budget adoption.

As a recap, at the budget workshop, staff presented both the department requested or status quo budget and the city manager's recommended budget for fiscal year 27. The status quo budget reflected a projected deficit of about $5.6 million. This was primarily driven by personnel, operational, and contractual cost increases. Staff implemented cost-saving strategies totaling approximately $3.2 million, lowering the projected deficit to approximately 2.4 million in the city manager's recommended budget. These balancing strategies do not impact staffing, but include $1.3 million in one-time funding relief. At the budget workshop on April 21, 2026, several items were requested to provide additional review and analysis. This included evaluating police department overtime trends to determine whether overtime funding could support additional full-time positions, reviewing the fiscal impact of the fire services contract with the city of Modesto. Reviewing the um remaining ARPA funds, evaluating planning consultant costs compared to in-house staffing, analyzing public works overtime trends. During the workshop, staff also noted that that negotiations with the city of Modesto for fire services were still ongoing and that there was potential for a reduction in contracted cost. In addition, staff restored the previously proposed $200,000 reduction to legal services to better align the budget with actual spending trends. Lastly, council requested a fiscal impact scenario

evaluating funding for the currently frozen positions for police services and the community development director. So, we will start with the police overtime and our fire services contract scenarios and analysis. We were requested to provide a um to evaluate whether overtime costs could instead support additional full-time positions in the police department. So staff review historical salary and overtime trends from fiscal year 18 through fiscal year 25 to develop this analysis and prepare the chart to the left. On this chart, the green line shows the salary cost compared to the budget. The orange line shows the overtime cost compared to budget. And the blue dotted line, it's showing the potential or the estimated number of police officer positions that could potent that could be funded through overtime saving or overtime spending. As you can see, the salaries, they they usually stayed within the budgeted um trends, usually just hitting right into the 90% mark in the um from 2018 through 2025. However, over time, you can see it also that it consistently s surpassed the budgeted dollars in some years, reaching nearly doubled the b the the budget. Based on that historical overtime spending levels, staff estimates that the city could potentially support approximately one to two additional

police officer positions annually in lie of overtime spending with the fisc year 26 projection showing about two FTEEs. The police chief, he's also tracking overtime through additional metrics and we have provided our analysis for the police department to also do a review and validation of our results and we and and chief he's confirmed that the trends that we are presenting in this chart they are also consistent with the department analysis and the oper and the department metrics that they're keeping at the moment. In this analysis, what you what it's suggesting is that some overtime costs may reflect ongoing staffing needs. Funding for more police officers or for more police personnel would not necessarily reduce the overall cost. Instead, it would shift some of the cost from overtime into regular salaries and and benefits. Now to the right, if we're looking at the fire services contract, the chart is comparing the estimated cost of maintaining in-house fire staffing versus contracted fire services with the city of Modesto. To estimate the future in-house staffing costs, the staff applied a 7% annual inflator based on the average increase in police salaries and overtime costs from fiscal year 18 through 25. As you can see in the chart for the first five years of the contract from fiscal year 22 when we started um the contract with the city of Modesto for

fire services through fiscal year 26 it's generated significant savings to for the city totaling approximately $1.9 million. Looking ahead to the revised fiscal year 27 through fiscal year 31 contract term, the savings become much modest and that is due to the rising cost of personnel including wages, pension and benefits. for our review of the city's ARPA funding. The city received approximately 11.7 million of ARPA funds. The city has spent about 11.4 million and that's left us with about $244,000 available to spend through December 20 December 31, 2026. As you can see, most of the project categories are fully expended and the remaining funds are are already obligated for code enforcement personnel costs, park improvement projects, and completing the implementation of financial modules with Tyler from our planning department. Um, analysis This uh slide is summarizing the planning department staffing and consultant cost. A fully lo on the right we are showing you the fully loaded FTE cost meaning the FTE cost including salaries, wages, um benefits, pension and other benefits for the for the staff member. So in this scenario, the fully loaded staffing

model for a senior planner and community development director, it would be estimated at approximately $428,000 annually. In comparison, if the city were to fully outsource this functions through contracted services at the estimated hourly rates for each one of these contracts, the annual cost would exceed $820,000. However, actual expenditures, excuse me, and you can see it on the left side, the actual cost of this contracted services, it's it's much lower than um than the scenario if they were they were being utilized at a full 20hour um per per year per year cost. Um you can see that year to date we have spent about $110,000 in contracted services between our senior uh planner contractor who the pro um goa engineering it's the provider and our planning services um contract for Northstar engineering services um based on their cont their contract hourly rates the level of services utilized to date is equivalent to approximately 0.2 of an FTE of a full-time position. This analysis what we're having what we're showing you here in this slide it's providing you two two scenarios and two things. Um one is like um is telling you that development when development activity is high in house staffing can become more cost effective over the long term. However, when development activity is low contracted services they provide

an efficient and flexible way to fill operational gaps. Our next slide it's looking at the public works overtime cost and we are showing you in this chart two um two metrics. One of them it's the budgeted overtime that which is the shaded um gray shaded in gray and the other one it's the actual that we spent in fiscal year 25. The public works overtime budget was approximately $119,000 and the actual overtime spent in fiscal year 25 it was around $92,000 with a general fund total of about 4,500. Um the rest it's being up it's it's being paid through the enterprise funds. The public works overtime is funded through a combination of enterprise and general fund with the mo with most of the costs supported by enterprise operations. And um in the general fund the impact it's um it's limited and um in fiscal year 26 uh the dollar to date it's about $5,000 of overtime paid for the general fund. Excuse me. um $6,000 for G fiscal year 26 since the budget workshop staff updated the two major cost assumptions impacting the general fund. The first one it was this um it was the the negotiation of the fire services contract with city

of Modesto. Um those negotiations were completed and it resulted in approximately $482,000 of savings in the general fund. And um and that was a reduction that it took place after we presented our figures from the budget workshop. And second, our legal services budget was increased by $200,000. this um the $200,000. It was one of the um cost-saving measures that we had proposed for the for balancing the budget at the city manager recommended budget, but um it was decided to restore this um reduction so we can align our our budget with the actual spending trends that we're seeing at the moment. With this updates, the um with this updates, it improved the projected general fund deficit from approximately $2.4 million to now 1 26 million. We've we've also included a fiscal impact scenario during the budget workshop. A request to prepare a fiscal impact scenario that would fund additional public safety in a community and the community development director was requested. The scenario includes funding for one police captain, one police sergeant, three police officers, and one community development director. To offset some of this costs, the scenario assumes reductions in planning consultant contracts and a reduction in the police overtime expenditures. We can see that even with this offsets, the scenario would increase the

projected general fund deficit to approximately 3.3 million, farther depleting the city's reserves if this is implemented. Tonight, staff is requesting direction from council regarding the fiscal year 27 proposed budget and house and house staff should proceed in preparation for the budget adoption meeting scheduled for June 8th. Council may direct staff to have direct us to any of these options. Option A to present the city city manager's recommended budget for adoption on June 8th using reserves of about 2.16 U million dollars or option B to present a budget for adoption on June 8 using reserves of some dollar amount that it would be established by the council tonight or option C for staff to come back to council and present a a balanced budget for adoption. on June 8th, which that would mean that our revenues and our expenditures would be equal. And based on the council's direction, staff will return on June 8th with the fiscal year 27 proposed budget prepared for adoption, including any necessary cost-saving measures, operational adjustments, and any budget modifications required to implement the selected options. That concludes our presentation and that um we are asking for council for direction on our proposed budget. Okay, we'll go out to the public. Is any members of the public like to make a comment?

What about online? Oh, Mr. Go ahead, sir. Ellen Guzman. So, uh there is a $200,000 increase in legal fees. What is that? Uh what's the total number for going into fiscal year 2026 to 27? What's the total number? Fiscal year 2027 our budget of fis legal services would look will be at 525,000.

Okay. All right. That's it. Thank you. There's nobody. Oh, go ahead, Mr. Pratt. Where sir? uh Dave Pis series saying the constant u hitting on the ready day funds. There was supposed to be a minimum funds that's supposed to be in there. If you keep hitting on that when you run that out, what's going to happen? You're going to have to close down the city or part of the city because you don't have the money there any longer. There are supposed to be a minimum fun uh funds that you're not supposed to go past, but it looks like you guys are going to be that. Anyways, thank you very much. Any hands raised?

There are no hands raised, but we did receive an email that needs to be read into the record. Go ahead.

The email is from John Warren. It states, "Hello to all of you this Mother's Day weekend. My thoughts concerning the 2627 budget. You and the city staff have to balance the budget. The city cannot go forward into the 2728 year looking for $5 million. There will be no reserves. The city will be broke. So balance it this year. Make some hard decisions and move forward. Some suggestions which might be correct and then again maybe not. These are things to consider. No overtime for anyone. Whatever needs to be done to stop paying overtime needs to be implemented. 30-day notice to employees regarding the change in working conditions. Just make it happen. The interim city manager needs to be given direction to stop all overtime and only allow CTO. Go back to a 5-day work week for all employees. The city needs to have everyone at work Monday through Friday. When the public calls the city, a live person needs to answer the phone. Consider closing the POS fire station. The city can no longer afford to ma man that station. A lot of the area they cover is not in the city limits of seriesir. I don't believe that station is in series city limits. I'm guessing that will be a savings of about $1.5 million. The city of seriesir owns the fire station, the fire training station on service road. Modesto, Turlock, and the county are using this facility to train quote their personnel. Series is receiving nothing for the use of this training facility. Students attending the fire academy are paying tuition to attend this training. Quote, who gets this money? Kind of like CYB renting out Costa Fields. We the city receive nothing in their in either case. The city does not employ any firemen or fire personnel. We the city do not need to train or cause to be trained fire personnel. We have a contract with the city of Modesto to provide a certain number of trained firefighters each day.

When this contract is ended, the city can choose to have a contract with a different department or continue with Modesto. Department we contract with needs to train personnel. We do not. The city needs to change $1 million per year for the use of our fire training facility. We are the owners. The department choosing the facility can decide how to divide the cost amongst themselves. If they charge tuition for students attending the fire academy, then the city of Siri should receive a portion of the monies. These will be hard decisions to make and discuss, but they must be made on this. They must be made or this time next year there will be no city funds with which to pay employees. As a city becomes more financially stable, then adjustments can be made. Each department must look at their operation and find ways to adjust their spending and operations. The excess idling of motor vehicles each department operates can cost thousands of dollars each year. I suggest a close look at this idling time and determine what it is costing the city each week and each year. I am sure this information is available. The cost of paid subscriptions to organizations need to be needs to be closely looked at and determined if the city should really be paying for these types of things. Outside training and travel costs should be monitored and receive approval by the city manager if necessary. The use of Zoom should always be considered first. I will be the first to admit I don't have all the facts regarding some of these suggestions, but you as the city leaders have access to this information and costs. This budget must be balanced. It cannot go forward by using $2.4 million of the reserves. It is your job to get it done. Also, consider not passing a budget, but putting a temporary month-to-month budget going forward until a balanced solution can be found. Please give these s suggestions some thought. Looking forward to seeing you all Monday night. John Warren.

Thank you very much. Go ahead and close public public comment. We'll bring this back to the council. Uh finance department. I I just wanted to ask a quick question. I didn't see a slide on the IT department. from the questions that I had last time. Those would be part of the balancing strategies that we would consider in the event that the council would need give us direction to provide a balanced budget. I'm sorry, we couldn't hear you on the microphone. Sorry about that. Those would be part of the balancing strategies that we would be bringing forward um as the council give provides direction on bringing forward a a balanced budget. Oh, no. I was just wondering if there was a comparison that you had in mind on that

versus contracting. We didn't have we didn't have time, but we can definitely bring something forward um with city manager too. Okay. Um that was just my first question, but I'll just go ahead and go to the council members. Councilwoman Vera,

thank you. I'm just going to a couple quick questions because I'm going to go as this grows, I guess, as this and make it very fluid, I guess. um little concerned about the legal costs because I don't know if that's actual because we still got a lot of lawsuits that are pending and not settled and we're still getting more in. I think we got like three of them last week which doesn't make me think that the legal costs are going down. Um and then also I didn't know if we were keeping the grant writer cuz I haven't seen the grant writer or any grants come forward that the grant writer is actually written and the cost seem kind of high. And then lastly, um I still have a concern about the overtime for police because right now looking at the budget that was presented looks like they used1,182,970 is what it's looks like it's going to end up with this year, which is an average of about $22,000 a week or $98,000 a month. And I'm really concerned about the overtime. And I think we really really need to get a hold of the overtime um cuz that's really bleeding us. And I would like to see what steps we're doing to try to minimize that cuz um I know we need our police officers, but I I almost 100,000 a month is just not okay in my eyes for any department regardless of where it's at. Um I just haven't seen the incidents or the instant reports or you know what the newspapers posting with the incidents that are happening every week that warrants $100,000 a month in overtime. So those are my concerns as of now. Councilwoman,

thank you. Um, I have a lot of comments and questions, but I think as we kind of discuss this, um, additional questions will come up. But just to start, um, I think it's important for the public to know that our finance director has only been with us for about 6 months and now our, um, interim city manager, he just started not too long ago. um they both inherited these financial issues and it's unfortunate um that they're having to comb through all of this. Um but here we are and I just appreciate both their work on this in such a short time um to try to get us to a balanced budget. Um in looking at the presentation you mentioned that there's been a savings from fire. So my understanding is the most of the fire contract that's paid out of measure H funding. Correct. Or all of it. No. Um the there is Oh my mic doesn't Okay, perfect. Um the contract services the for the fire it is paid between general fund and measure age.

It's okay. 20%. It's paid out of measure H and 80% out of general fund.

Okay. And then uh when it comes to legal services uh there is an increase but I believe with going out even if we brought our own attorney in would the cost be close to this amount or even more? We have not put a scenario of in house staffing versus contracted services. We would have to go back and look into that. Okay. Thank you. And also from the presentation, another question. Um, when you talk about possibly filling police positions, um, which I don't disagree, it's critical, but you also mention the cost, uh, maybe cutting some overtime. Are you are we referring to cutting all of their overtime or is there a certain percentage that we're looking at because there's I feel that they would still incur some overtime even if um we bring back those those frozen positions.

Absolutely. There is still a budget for overtime for the police department. Um knowing that there is overtime that will happen in the department um for various reasons that the um that that do not re do not tie to anything that it's due to not having a fully staffed department. So um and chief can also share any more information but the um some of the overtime it's just inherent for the department. They some of the officers need to attend court. Some of the officers need to be um called for um writing a report after hours. So that's going to happen. we are not cutting or reducing the overtime to um we're not fully depleting that. they will still have that to account that um to account for for for those instances where they need to stay over and um and the overtime that we are proposing as a reduction is pretty it's it's conservative and it's pretty much in line with the cost of what it would cost from our chart if we were to fund 1.5 million 1.5 million 1.5 of an FTE be the the reduction in overtime would be the equivalent of about 300,000

and um chief that's something that would work for you and your team.

Yeah, the additional officers will help us um but probably not immediately. So, what's going to happen is in uh by July 1st, we should be back to our normal staffing uh or close to it to where we can come off our 12-h hour shifts and go back to our normal 11-hour shifts. That in alone will save about 20% of our overtime moving forward. And this last year in October, uh we were at 1,600 plus hours for the month of October and we only had 28 deployable officers. Um, I'm very happy to report in April, uh, this last month, we're at 36 deployable officers and our overtime was at 700 hours. So, a very significant difference. It all has to do with staffing. U, I plan to continue to keep officers in the police academy. That is a very good strategy moving forward, but it takes a year. So what will happen is if we lose an officer and we don't keep recruits in the academy, it takes a year for us to replace them, which then that that your overtime uh is going to increase. If we keep this pipeline of them in the academy and we can bring them in, it will make sure that we always have our patrol filled and that's the majority of the overtime.

Thank you. And then uh for our city manager if you can provide or finance director just some clarification when it comes to the um fire training center. City of series has full control over that center. Correct.

The city of series uh entered into an agreement with multiple agencies. Chief, you might uh fact check me on this. Um and each of those agencies have different responsibilities. For example, the city of seriesir provides the building. The city of Modesto provides qualified trainers. Uh Chief Hunter, can you fill in the gaps for me?

Yeah. Uh thank you, uh council member. So the um fire training center at station 17 sat vacant as a unoccupied station. Um so back in 2022 uh even previous that there were discussions that took place to uh utilize that as a a fire training center as a location and part of that came through a training where each agency within theou that includes the city of Siri, city of Modesto, the city of Turlock and Stannislos Consolidated Fire Protection District joined together to uh each contribute uh uh what they had available to um provide a training center so that all the firefighters within those agencies could go to one location to be trained and city of seriesir u um the that station 17 is is owned by the city of seriesir uh the city of Modesto provides staffing and personnel uh and the same with uh stance consolidated as well as turlock. Uh, one of the additional benefits is that it also provides for additional training sites. For example, down in Turlock, there's a training site there that we have access to. So, it it is um truly a partnership between these agencies to ensure that all the firefighters within this uh group are trained together, that they operate under common SOPs, common protocols, and they can practice those skills. And so the the benefit to the city of series uh is that uh the city of series has trained firefighters uh to respond to calls uh the you know close to 6,000 calls for service that take place within series every year.

Thank you, Chief. And then I also want to get clarification on the POS fire station. um the percentage that city of series pays in because I know that all the calls there aren't for the city of series uh residents. So is there a certain percentage that um series is responsible county city Modesto? What does that look like?

Thank you council member. Under the current agreement, the city of Sir um provides funding for 100% of all of the staffing of all three stations, POS service and uh the downtown station here in series. That's under the current agreement which expires June 30th of this year. We're still in contract negotiations for the updated agreement or the extension of the current agreement. And part of those negotiations including includes a provision that the city of series I think it's station 19 out on POS. The city of series would pay for only the portion of time that is spent within the city of series. And there is an allocation method that of the total number of hours that that spa that station spends on certain calls. Some of it is in the county area, some of it is in the city of Modesto and some of it in is in the city of Sir. So this updated agreement is working towards and I I do believe that it will be finalized in this way that that station that the city of series will only pay for the number of unit hours that that station commits only to the city of series.

Thank you. That's all I have for now. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh chief, I have a question for you, sir. For SWAT, uh when they go out on a call, let's say to assist the city of Turlock or the city of Modesto, does the city of Seir pay that overtime or do we bill out those outside agencies? Yeah, we uh the city of Sears will pay anytime we assist another agency and uh they do the same. So, if we call them and they they pay their own overtime if they help us.

Thank you, sir. Um like Council Member Oro Vieira said, you know, the overtime is an issue. Um, I think council member Vieier said bleeding us and it is, but we are underst staffed and I know you've since taken over. You've gotten the police department to really rally behind you and I appreciate that. Uh, I know that turnovers aren't what it was and I know that you've you've pushed forward getting officers into the academy and bringing more people on. So, I really appreciate and respect that, sir. Um, and then I just had a thought on the city attorney. Uh, we currently contract White Brener for our city attorney, uh, which I believe they said was $500,000. If we were to in-house, we would need probably a legal secretary and the attorney. And anytime that attorney doesn't specialize uh in whatever that court case may be, they may need to go out themselves and get assistance from other attorneys. I don't see uh hiring an in-house attorney at this time being financially responsible.

Rosen, I know that you pressed your button, but I just have a quick question if you don't mind. Yeah, finance uh director, could you possibly pull up the slide that showed the request for the community director and also the other two items? I think it was just the one before this. Yeah, a little bit more than that where it showed that it would increase like 1 point something million

that one. That one scenario.

No, I just you know I I think this is the reason why I asked these questions and although in a perfect world I could wave my magic wand and give the Siri Police Department everything that they wanted. Um, but out of respect, I understand looking at it now, especially for the community director, for the time being, it doesn't seem like it would make sense to to fund that. Um, my question to the chief is, let's just say we the funding the three officers at 620,000, is that was that something that is connected to the three that are in the academy? Is this totally separate for funded positions, not these these frozen positions?

So, we're at uh 47 U right now with three frozen officer, a sergeant, and a captain. So, those three would make put us at 50. Okay. So, my question, the three that you have the in the academy now, if we were to not fund these three positions, would that affect your three in the academy? No, that the the 47s them.

Okay. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because I want to make sure that I'm doing everything in my due diligence to make sure that I do my best uh research so that we can have a fully funded police department. But if that is not going to be something that you feel is necessary right now, I will support you in that. Um and obviously my goal is not to increase the already great job that the finance department has done to decrease and also the city manager. You know, I know city managers, you've had a lot of experience. We talked about it today on how many budgets that you've done in the past and even though you've been here for only 5 weeks with your experience, you know, I will most definitely take your comments into consideration also with the um finance director. I understand that you also have a lot of experience as well. And with that experience, although you just I don't know how long you've been here, maybe four months. Regardless, I know your experience is important in this decision- making. What I will say is that that you have done a great job to make sure that there is no positions, no jobs to be lost. I know I did ask about the IT department, but at the time it was my understanding that we had some additional funding that I thought that could be moved to the general fund, but I was incorrect about that. And that's one of the biggest reasons why I brought up the IT department in in that regard. You know, I I understand that in my six years that I've been here, there has been times in especially in 2022 23 where we had utilized American Rescue Plan dollars um to plug into our budget and then a year later finding out that we actually never used it. So we used it again the next year. was a projection. The only difference like I asked last year was why are we in the position where we are today if we have been if our revenue has increased over the last couple years and finance department looked at me and said inflation and this this is the unfortunate situation that we are in today especially coming out of

co but I will say right now that I think that it's important that as a city like us who are growing with some of the unfortunate things that we do have to pay for that if we were to ask for a balanced budget that would be jobs that would be lost. And I just could not sleep at night if that was the case. And I think that we're smarter than people believe that we are that we have other plans to make sure that we come out on top at the end. Uh so my my only thing I would say to the city council is from based on members that have been here the longest and you've seen the projections that have happened and some of the budgets that we have passed to come to find out this the following year that we never had to use that funding that we move forward with the recommended budget. And that's the last thing I wanted to say. We'll go to council member Vieira.

Thank you. And I'm not sure if it's going to be chief or city manager, but um I know station 10 responds to half of my district. And so I just want to make sure that's not going to affect response times to my district. And then my other question would be, is that going to impact some of the revenue and tax dollars that we get from the sphere of influence homes that are part of 19 that we're getting? Just looking at the budget, it looks like it's almost just under 400,000 that we're getting. If I'm reading this right, please don't quote me on this completely. Um, but I'm just looking at the budgeted amount here on these two lines. And so I just want to know what the impact was and are we losing more money than what we're realizing because I think that's important to understand that we're still getting some property taxes from those sphere of influence or those unincorporate areas to cover the fire services. And so I just want to make sure we're not hurting oursel by doing that.

With uh thank you for the question. With respect to station 10, uh series still continues to participate in uh the resource sharing partnership and there would be no impacts uh to the residents of series that uh engine 10 responds to. uh with respect to uh station 19 and the sphere of influence. Um yes, station 19 resides within uh the sphere of influence of uh the city of series. Uh but I'm not aware of any taxes that are obtained by the city of series through that sphere of influence that would be impacted. If I'm answering your question correctly,

I was just checking because I I I know the two lines and I just wanted to make sure that those weren't going to be impacted because that's almost $400,000. Council member Casey,

right? Um, we we had a one of our committees, mayor, I think, and you're on it, and I'm not sure vice mayor is on it, has to do with fire. And my question is, over the 5 years that we've had the contract with Modesto, have you uh looked for an alternative service provider? I think with the information that we received today about the cost savings, this is something that I personally was involved in the beginning as I became mayor and I asked the question, can we contract with the city of Modesto? And at first there was a lot of push back even from the firefighters and realizing that those firefighters have actually uh almost increased their pay by 100%. uh that has changed their lives and not only not only that but has also changed the lives of citizens of series with the services that have been provided in 2022. We had a huge incident at a location on service road. It got so much national attention that the governor called and he knew that we had a situation that Modesto Fire Department took care of very well and if it wasn't for the Modesto Fire Department and the services and on the resources that we had I don't think that we would have been able to respond in the same way. So to the answer to your question is yes. I have looked into it. I looked into it the moment that we brought it to the table and today with the information that was provided which I do appreciate the city manager bringing that to my attention that there has been a cost savings. I would have most definitely had a different perspective if there wasn't no cost savings. Mr. Casey,

I think you misunderstood my question or maybe I didn't ask it right. Have you looked at another provider to provide the fire service besides Modesto City? That was my question.

I misunderstood the question, but it still remains the same and my comments remain the same that there is no other provider because of the the fact that Modesto Fire Department has a agreement with the city of Modesto, city of Turlock, and several other agencies. It just proves to show that this is working. And I believe that the collaborative uh way that the city of Modesto has put this together has really helped the city of series. So the simple answer is no. No, the the answer is yes because if if there was a dire need to go look outside of this Modesto contract that would have been something to take in consideration because of course it is correct. I have been sitting on this committee for almost 5 years and I stepped off it for one year but I came back and the information provided today just proves the fact that this contract is valuable to the city of Siri.

Okay. Thank you Mr. Casey. Uh Councilwoman

thank you. Um so I have a question when it comes to Modesto Fire and looking at our police department as well. So, we have unfunded positions right now with our police department. Um, we're in a deficit. If the city said, "Hey, Modesto Fire, um, we can't afford, you know, so much staffing at this station or that station," what does that look like? Is that even an option, um, to look at fire staffing? Because at some point, are is are our police department is our police department getting left behind? if that makes sense. Modesto fire in pay increases and all of that are going to continue because I just want to make sure we're being fair across the board when it comes to public safety. We need both and um obviously I appreciate everything Modesto Fire does as well, but if we're looking at unfunded positions and all of that, I don't there's not necessarily unfunded positions for fire. So, if we try to even that out, I mean, is that going to even be possible or does city Modesto have all of that control to make that decision? Thank you for the question. I can I'll give a try at it and then you can correct me. So within the current contract as well as the contract that we're being uh that's being proposed at any time the city of series can uh meet and confer with the city of Modesto and have a discussion about staffing uh and that's allowed within the within the contract. And has there been any discussion recently uh to look at staffing specifically because of this deficit?

Yes. Uh the the most recent has been in discussions regarding the uh future contract. Thank you.

Um and then also I'm going to bring this up again. I did bring it up last year. Um and I will have a referral later. I think that as a council we also need to look at our own budget. Uh, one of those being the professional development funds. Um, obviously the healthc care and the stipend. Um, anything that comes from general fund for those items could be reallocated to a different uh, department. Um, I think about our police department and having new dispatchers, having new officers. There is a lot of training that's going to come with those new hires. Um so again it's really important that we keep in mind this is a part-time position. There are part-time employees who do not receive um health benefits. Uh we also need to contribute to resolve this current issue and you know it's not necessarily um if it's 20,000 it's 20,000. It's still money that needs to be given back somewhere else into this budget. Um, so I would hope that that's something that the council would consider uh when I move forward later with a referral. And also it's been really challenging looking at this budget because and same thing last year. There's not a broken down um activity report kind of like showing all the contracts that we have, all of the recreation programs, the cost of every single event that we have through the year. So, when we look at cutting cost, the council doesn't have a breakdown of everything. Um, subscriptions, memberships, subscription based softwares, all of that is in this budget, but I don't know what those look like. So, it's hard for me to go to uh, well, a city manager in this case and go, "Hey, can we work this out and maybe stop this subscription for a year or renegotiate this contract?" Um but I have asked a lot of questions with and

communicated with city manager and he has shared that he's looking at um you know renegotiating contracts, things like that. So I do appreciate that. But as a council member, it just makes it hard right now to basically see the full picture of this budget and it's really concerning um because even throughout the year we didn't receive any financial reports. This is the first time um that we get this this financial update. Um, I just want to make sure that we are going out for all the possible grants that we can get, especially for recreation, um, the police department. Those are going to be really important. You know, the second a congressman or even our assembly members like, hey, we have some grant opportunities. Um, please submit, you know, for those. We've got a park that needs to be redone. So, I just want to make sure we're looking towards that. and also looking at um supplies for all departments. Again, I think at this point every penny matters. Um so we need to try to cut as much as we can.

Any additional comments from the council.

Well, I'll just I'll maybe I'll make a couple comments. I just do really want to say that I do truly appreciate the council's input. All my council members here today have expressed their concerns, made suggestions, tough conversations are happening, but I just want to because I want the staff to know that I can only speak for myself as the mayor that I truly do honestly appreciate the hard work that you put in because it's not easy when you're sitting here today listening to council members talk about things that could possibly affect you and your person and your families. So, if there was any moment at any time that I may have said something that possibly made you feel that my goal was to, you know, put you in a position that you wouldn't have a job. I just I would I would like to apologize for that. But our slogan says together we achieve, vice mayor. Together we achieve. Council members, together we achieve. And at the end of the day, when we walk out of this council, I just want to make sure that everybody here knows that that we have done everything in our power to make sure that this city continues to move forward. And I will be supporting option A today unless other council members have any other suggestions. Mr. Casey,

I always forget. I forget.

Oh, no. Mr. I I think it's important to note that we have in my opinion a very good if not one of the best fire individuals that I've known. I'm not like most of our council. I don't go visit them. Our police department, the ones that I've had encounter with are great people. The staff that I've worked with limitedly in this city is wonderful. But the fact of the matter is uh we can't afford it. We can't afford it. We can't uh we put we the five of us over the years have really made this happen. We're not, you know, this didn't happen yesterday. Mr. Mayor and myself are the longest people on the council. He's been here almost a year, probably longer than I have, but we we've created this problem and unfortunately it it's going to require some hard work and we're not going to have another council meeting now until the June the 8th because of previous commitments. Uh but at any rate, I support number C.

Thank you, Mr. Casey. and uh we would make sure that we give direction to the city staff, city manager and the finance department. So maybe if if it's appropriate, I'll I'll ask uh the vice mayor and every other council member from that point if you have made a decision unless you have additional comments. Vice Mayor, support item A. Council member to you don't have to necessarily just say which one you support if you have additional comments.

I I do. Um, I just want clarification for letter B. Um, if the council establishes a threshold, let's just say of 1.4 million, do you have an idea of what that might look like? Is there additional um cost savings that you might have in mind that would help at least bring down the deficit?

Thank you, Council Member Otto. Um, first if I could, I would like to thank our finance director and all of the department heads. I know that you guys have all worked together um led by the finance director, but I've personally in the last 5 weeks I've been here seen each department um contribute to getting it down from what was 5.6 to now 2.1. And I just want to thank you all for that. To answer your question, the finance director and I and me personally with uh some of the department directors have come up with strategies that would reduce it even further from 2.1 down to a threshold that you would set and all the way down to zero. So, we have worked through some of those um potential strategies just in internal communications. I'm certainly not prepared to present those now, but we have done some preliminary work that would reduce it further than 2.16. So, is is there an option to extend the budget? Um because I I would be interested in in exploring what those options might be uh before we decide how we want to move forward. Not sure if the city attorney or the finance director has any comments on this, but um it's always been my understanding that we have the deadline of July 1st and if we don't um there could be some unintended consequences of that. Um there may be some legal issues associated with that. There may be some challenges when we eventually go through the financial audit after the fact. The city attorney or finance director have any additional comments?

I'll I'll defer to the the finance director, but I think it's more of a practical consideration. Yes, you need to have your adopted budget for the next next fiscal year. Um there are some things you probably could do early on to establish a a budget and then make adjustments, but I think it's a more practical consideration. But I'll defer to Vanessa on that.

Thank you. And our ask for tonight is to get direction. We will bring those um balancing strategies back to the council. So the council on June 8th, you you make can make a a an educated decision on what you feel comfortable supporting. So, this is just for us to go back and do the homework and gather all of the cost-saving strategies that would get us to either the threshold that you establish or that will get us to a balanced budget, but at that point, we will still bring it forward to the council and you will see a listing of what that encompass the the balancing strategies for item B. Um it will it would that would mean that we would have reductions and impacts to services to contracts maybe staffing and option number C if we were to present a balance a balanced budget that would also show the council on June 8th what those balancing strategies would be um would be for consideration and the imp each one of the impacts whether that is operational contracts or staffing as well. So all of those up regardless of which option it's chosen for us to to get direction, we will still bring those items back to the council for consideration and approval.

Thank you, Council Member Vier.

Thank you. I think I'm kind of with Serena when it comes to B. I don't necessarily like where we're at. Um I don't think that's a good place to be um moving forward. Um I'm a little scared about layoffs and furls. Employees have really really um are really scared and they have reached out to me and that is something I told them I would try my very best. Um I just I I don't want to start losing employees and I'm really scared when it comes. I feel their fear because we have the same problem at my job. we already starting to see the reduction in workforce at my employer and so I see it and I I feel the same fear and have some of the same concerns they do and I am open to a special meeting prior to the June 8th. I just can't do it once a month or once a week actually. I do have um a medical issue in my family where we have to go to the on um deal with some personal issues I guess the best way with out of town medical care and so we do travel out of town once a or to the Bay Area at least once a week. Um actually she has three appointments every week um to address the medical issue that's going on in our family. Um so I I do need to have it prescheduled so that way I can have our doctor appointments. But um outside of that, I'm okay with having a special meeting specifically just for the budget to review what B and C would look like. Um because I think when we look at those um those are some concerns for me. I I'm just not okay with approving it where it's at now.

Mr. Casey, any additional comments? I'm sorry. Did he did you already mention which you did? I came my apologies. Okay. So, Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. You just verified what I think a lot of sometimes you don't listen to me. Yeah. I said, "See." Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. Okay. Good to know. Now, here's where I think that I'm going to challenge my council. Uh, let's let's at least give them some actual direction. Let's make some recommendations on how much we want to cut back, if that is the case, to bring back to the city council. So, I'm going to start off by saying, do we want to have them bring us back something that says 2 million flat or do we want them to say to bring something back that says 1.5? Well, I think for me what I struggle with again is I don't have a list of contracts. I don't have a list of subscriptions. I don't there's a lot missing here um that I would be interested in seeing and I don't know if that means that maybe finance can send that to the council so we can review. I don't also don't know the timing of what that would take to present that to us. Um but I do need to see the options for B and C. Um, you know, I worry with this kind of deficit that it's going to affect our public safety and we already don't have police off we we are fully staffed at the 47 but we still have unfunded positions and um that that concerns me. Um, but if we're going to look at option B, then you know, well, I want to look at I want to see B and C, but I would say bring bring it down to um what it looks like with 1 million from reserves.

Okay. So, you're saying 1 million? Vice Mayor, any thoughts on that? I'm still supportive of A, but it seems like we might be heading in the direction of bringing it down to 1.5. Okay. 1.5 council member Vieira what are your thoughts

again without seeing everything like councilwoman Serena had me oro had mentioned um I think I'm somewhere between one and 1.5 I don't I prefer I'm leaning more towards the one but without seeing everything I can't I I just I I'm really scared for the employees and I'm feeling their fear And I I really want to see what we can cut and still try to maintain services, especially public safety like you mentioned, and maintain parks and make sure we still have our staff to clean the gutters and clean out the drains when it's when there's storms and trees fall down and we need someone to respond to take down the trees and um the police responding. I saw the 100 mile per hour chase online. Um, we need the public safety out there and I think those are key and I but I also know that we need to balance a budget because um, the economy is not turning around and I think that's something we need to look at and hopefully with what Julian's working at, we can get some businesses out here and hopefully increase some of our property taxes and sales taxes. And then um I I know we didn't see much on the breakdown regarding sales tax versus meals tax because I think that also affects some of our service businesses because I think they get taxed at a slightly higher rate. Um so maybe we need to work on trying to increase some of those businesses as well. So um but I'm kind of with Serena and in the middle between Serena and Martinez.

Mr. Casey, there's any suggestions on giving finance director I know you said C, but I still would like your input.

Sure. My my suggestion is still C, but my suggestion is to take a look at all the revenue sources that we have in place and make sure that we're exercising our right as a city to collect those fees. I I'm I know I'm I mean I'm un I'm like you. I've only been here four and a half years. I haven't been here six. But I brought it up over and over and over and over again. And I mean there's people conducting business in the city of Series that are not paying not collecting sales tax. We have businesses that are operating in the city of Series that don't have business licenses. We I mean the the um and I have a a bleeding heart for every employee that works here, not just public safety. Uh but if we don't have it, we don't have it. So, let's get our money together. And it my answer is still C. Thank you.

Okay, sounds good. I'm kind of hearing a little bit of one to 1.5. I'd like to make a suggestion, then we can maybe try a motion. I I still support a at this point, but I will also be interested in what it would look like if we were to do either 2 million or 1.5. That that way you would bring back option A and then you would bring back what it would look like for 2 million and then what it would look like 1.5. And unless uh Vice you want to make a motion or I can just make the motion and see where it goes from there. I'll make a motion that the finance director and team and the city manager bring back options A and option B with a $2 million recommendation and a $1.5 million recommendation. Don't you think it'd be easier on staff just to do item A at 2.16 and then item B at 1.5 and instead of having them have to work on two different cuts and the one of them would only be cutting, you know,.16 million. So

I'll redo my motion. I will retract my motion and I will motion item A and then item B for $1.5 million. I'll second that. Get a Can we get a roll call, please? Council member Casey, no. Council member Vieiraa, no. Council member Otto, no. Vice Mayor Martinez, I. Mayor Lopez, yes. Motion fails. Two, three.

Okay. Council, uh, we need to give finance direction. Open for motion so we can move forward. I would make a motion to um present letter B um at $1 million and letter C as council member Casey has suggested as well. So we can look at both options. Waiting for a second. hearing none. Motion dies. All right. While everybody's making up their mind, I'm going to bring up a little history of what might have happened. I believe it was in 22. We were at the the last day where we wouldn't have not made a decision, none of our staff would have gotten paid. And I and I've been through this before. And I just want the council to put all everything else aside and try to come up with a solution today. Um so that we can we can give direction to the finance and to the city manager. Um I believe know I said this earlier together we achieve and I think that regardless finance department will give us pretty well presented uh presentation on where we stand. So, I will go ahead and uh leave it to the council. Come up with an additional motion.

Mr. Mayor, can I sir jump in real quick? Um, again, it's only been five weeks, but I think there are buckets that we can put potential cost savings in. One of them being an increased revenue bucket. One of them being a an equipment and services bucket. In terms of outsourcing services, there are several buckets. One of those buckets is staffing, existing, sitting staffing. And I've heard from the council tonight that there is um reservation to put it mildly to touch staffing. So, what we could do is bring you every possible option that we've come up with, including cuts to staffing or excluding cuts to staffing. If I'm going to bring you an option that includes cuts to staffing, I'm going to need to have those conversations with those staff members before I bring those to you. So, what I'm really looking for you tonight from you tonight in terms of that is, would you like us to bring you every possible option that doesn't touch existing staffing, existing full-time staffing, or would you like us to bring you every possible option? have me have those conversations with those staff members for those potential staffing cuts to be considered. I'm not sure if that's making sense, but what I'm what I'm asking you is we can bring you every option. Do you want those options to include cuts, reductions to full-time staffing? So for clarification if you bring back the full-time that that option um there would be more

time to disc if we can have a special meeting as well. Maybe you bring that back to a special meeting and then we can have time to look at you know ultimately the big picture and then break it down from there.

We could call a special meeting. We do have the second meeting in June. So right now the schedule is we would do the work that we need to do to assemble a list of options for you for the June 8th meeting. And that could include me talking to staff that may be impacted by your decisions or it could exclude that. So, an option could be that we present you with this list at a special meeting for you to take action on June 8th or we present you with this list on June 8th for us to go back and make further revisions to and you adopt at June 22nd. So there still is that second meeting in June that we have kind of as a cushion, as a buffer that you can we would have uh appropriate conversations beforehand so that you're fully informed and aware, but you would be presented with the options on June 8th, make the decision on June 8th or give further direction. We'd bring it back on June 22nd. It still gets done in time for the July 1 deadline.

Councilwoman Vieira,

thank you. Are you done? Okay. Okay. I just because I think we're kind of on the same brain wave right here. So, I don't want to jump in the middle of your flow going um I don't know if I want to wait till June 8th to have those kind of discussions and reviews and to be pushed up against the wall at the end of June. I I I don't like that idea because I mean I don't want to risk employees not getting paid or even fearful that they won't get paid. I don't want them suddenly we have a department's closed because we're having no choice but to have furlows. I'd rather have a special meeting or at least an opportunity to review it beforehand. Um I like all of the opportunities because I I'm still really concerned about staff and having staff available. We have difficulty. We get a lot of complaints about staff not being available and that's my concern. Um, I know we're going into summer months, so at least we don't have to worry about any major storms hopefully. Um, but I still I I want to see how low we can get it. Um, whilst I'm still worried about full-time staff and just still maintaining safety levels as well with our police and our fire, um, and our first responders, which I know is code enforcement as well, and dispatchers. I think we're still having some staffing issues there. So, I don't want to see cuts, especially in key areas. And I don't want to say anyone's any more important than anyone else because if we can't flush our toilets at the end of the day or water's not coming out clear, they're going to be upset because we don't have our public works people and staff or we now have a big pothole or sinkhole, which we've been seeing more and more of lately. And I think it's important that we have all the staff available to maintain the city operating at regular um levels, but within a reasonable amount. out and if that includes subscriptions, travel, um, certifications or whatever we can cut and still be feasible, I think that's important. We if we don't have the money, we just don't have the money. And if we have to cut staff, um, I think that I think we still need to look at it

and try to see what we can do. I don't want to really touch staff if we don't have to at any level. City manager in finance, we talked about the potential date maybe June 1st, which is the week before June 8th. Would that just not give you time? Would that be plenty of time? June 1st for a special meeting and then June 8th for the budget adoption

and then you would have then you would also have the June 22nd. Planning Commission may have to wait. They can just go across the hallway if that's the case. This is more important than that. Julian, do you happen to know is there a an agenda already set for June 1st?

We don't have the agenda, but we did have an item going on that day that I can see. Oh, the community workshop. I thought that was on the 18th. Uh that is the first we had one item scheduled for for the June 1st meeting June 2nd. City managed me to move that item I can move it. What about moving planning commission up about an hour?

Yes. Is that the meeting where there is a special presentation that's already been posted and made available to the public? No, that's um that's the 18th. It's the 18th of May. Okay. Yeah, it's different. Yeah. If we can move it to 5:00 p.m. special council meeting at 6 p.m. on June 1st and then hopefully budget adoption on June 8th. Okay. Okay. So that takes just Julian.

Well, that takes that would take care of that would take care of at least time frame, but we still need to give staff direction. City manager just give us um some suggestions. I would need a motion. Go ahead, Councilwoman.

Uh just one last thought. Um you know, obviously I'm with Council Member Vieier when it comes to this. We have some we have very hard workers here in our city and they've been maintaining what they could. We've had to contract out certain things. Um I'm a local government employee as well and so to even think that there's potential for staff's you know any staff positions to be cut it, you know, it is bothersome. Um but when I look at what's going to be left in reserves 2 it's 2 point something million uh one emergency could you know throw us under. So that's why again I say let's look at all options um and I appreciate you taking that extra step and for finance as well to come up with something.

Thank you very much. Is there a motion on the table? Um, I guess I will motion to have city staff go ahead and create a budget using what they can to bring it down with options B, I guess, and C with whatever options they can um, and schedule a special meeting or does that need to be separate for us to review? No, you can include it as part of the Okay. And a special meeting um for us to review it so that way it's in place on time. Is that what you were referring to?

Yes. I just want to confirm with uh Julian is that move of the planning commission meeting going to be okay. Yes, that's fine. I'll take care of the money.

Thank you. And and so for purposes of clarity on the motion, what I'm hearing is your city manager has recommended all options including staffing. The motion that was made would include all those options. Yes. Which is I I I think is key because I want to make sure that we all are transparent and open and even the employees understand who's at risk with this. And it's an unfortunate situation, but now I really don't like the thought, but I think that's unfortunately what we have to do. Um, people are going to be notified that if we can't find other options, there's a risk of them being either furoughed or laid off.

Okay. There's a one. Uh, there was a motion. I'll second. Can you remind me who made the first? Thank you. Roll call. Second call. Council member Casey. Yes. Council member Vieiraa. Yes. Council member Otto. Yes. Vice Mayor Martinez. No. Mayor Lopez.

All right. Before I make before I give my answer, I will fight to make sure that no job is lost. So, I do not want any staff members to fear that their jobs will be lost just because of this motion. And looks like it's going to pass anyway. So, I'll say I'll say no. Motion carries 32.

Thank you very much, everyone. Moving on to council member referrals. Item number 17. Uh it is presentation to council before and after large events and this is requested by council member at the January 12th, 2026 regular city council meeting. Council member.

Thank you mayor. Um, so my referral is just in reference to when we have the the Halloween event for example or actually I'll use the Christmas tree lane parade. Um, if we can if the council can get information as to what's going to occur. Um, is there any volunteers out there? Do we have staffing? Things like that. And then also maybe an afteraction report to the council. Uh, did everything go well? Do we have to make any changes for next year? um you know for example the Christmas tree lane this year I didn't even know it was going to be in reverse direction um so I think those kind of things will help us to keep the community informed um so that is why I'm requesting for it's basically afteraction report and a report before uh a large event

any comments from the public anybody online there are no hands raised online okay I'll bring is back for any additional comments by the council. Vice Mayor,

thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think typically all these projects that you mentioned are usually ran by parks and reccks department. Um, I know they do a lot of work planning it. They're usually pretty busy leading up to it and then, you know, once the event passes, they're pretty busy putting things away and getting ready for the next event. So, I don't feel like adding an extra burden of having them come and report to us how they plan the event or how they want to do things so that we can micromanage how they're planning their events or uh putting extra stress on them when they're trying to run these events, especially since they are one of our smaller departments and do put on a lot of events throughout the year and they all seem to go off without a hitch. So, I wouldn't be supportive of adding an extra step for them in their events. Uh, council member,

thank you. um kind of agree with you. I don't think they necessarily need a time. I don't mind having something similar to what we get with public works where they're just like, "Hey, we had this many broken sprinklers at Samar Park. We had this many graffiti at Samar, you know, at Riverbluff or whatever park it was." I don't mind just a written recap. I don't think they need to do a full presentation like what HR did today. So, depending on where it's going, I is kind of how I feel about it because I I don't think we some of these need to be big and dramatic. I'm happy with what I'm getting right now with public works.

I would just say that I I know that for these that you mentioned, there's committee members on that and they always report out and I would hate that those committee members won't be afforded the right to make decisions within that committee without outside members interjecting with those decisions prior to to an event and also afterwards. So, I'm going to be no on this. Mr. Casey,

thank you. Uh yeah, I think the the point is this information, you know, we we as council people uh should be informed of things that are going on and like Serena, council person Serena mentioned, you know, the the parade went backwards since it normally goes a different way. You know, little things like that. I don't think anybody's it's just information which we do a piss poor job of because look here we're talking about our budget for 2026 27 and we have uh what four people out there it's all about communication to our public. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I got I got consensus from Martis. Council member thumbs up for you thumbs down for me. Uh, Councilwoman, I don't I I don't know the extent of this, so it's really hard for me to vote. I don't need a full 10-minute presentation like Delilah did today. I'm happy with just a written report like what I'm getting from public works. That is what I'm looking for. So, it depends on what she's looking for. If she wants a big presentation like Delila, it's no. If it's just a report, just a quick recap or council members recapping the meeting. Um, then that's all I I really need. I don't need a full 10-minute presentation.

Councilwoman, would you clarify, please? I know Mr. Vice Mayor just stepped down, by the way. Go ahead. Um, so my suggestion is a a presentation doesn't have to be 10 minutes. It can be five minutes. Um, it's just something to put out to the public. It's something to put out to the council so we're all on the same page. Councilwoman Vera then No, I just need a written report. I don't need a full PowerPoint presentation. Mr. Casey, thumbs up or thumbs down? I was going to make a comment. Absolutely, sir. Go ahead.

Thank you. I think you know, Council Member Vieira made a point that it's a practice that I don't have. I don't have a the practice of going to staff and asking them questions. I I my questions would go to the city manager. I don't have that same I guess good feeling about that. I think I go back to it's so important for us to communicate everything that goes on in the city. It's just that simple. My wife and I happen to be going by somewhere. I can't even tell you what the the activity was, but we saw all these people here and heck was something going on and and somehow another be my fault for sure. It it wasn't I wasn't aware of it. Uh and then I mentioned to other people in the community, they weren't aware of it. I think it's just important that we do the best we can to communicate to the citizens of Siri. That's all. So, I would vote in favor of some sort of presentation.

City clerk, did you get that direction yet? Sorry, did I get what? Three thumbs down and two thumbs up. Yes, I did. Is there any additional council member referrals from the council? Go ahead, Serena.

So, I have uh two additional referrals. The first one is going to be I'd like us to explore um amending the ordinance to remove the healthc care benefits and reduce the stipen to half for the council members. That's my first referral. The second referral is going to be um and new you might have to help me with this but I I do want to have a review of the general plan. I'd like to um possibly tighten the zoning standards. We just need to create a better vision and strategy to attract businesses that our community needs. Um, I want to make sure we don't have duplicate businesses. Um, and I want to bring in businesses that are actually going to bring in um, you know, sales tax to the city as well. Um, so that's Do I have to add anything to that for this referral? Are you are you thinking specifically of permitted uses and looking at the zoning code for for that that that because the general plan is very very high level and it wouldn't maybe looking at some policies and making recommendations to that but it sounds like maybe it's more specific to the zoning code.

Yeah, I mean I'll use the example. I watched the I was able to watch the planning commission meeting and I think maybe there was a little confusion and frustration amongst all planning commissioners. Um we do have another duplicate business coming in. So how do we improve that? How do we control more what is going to come into the city um because I see other cities growing and ours kind of seems behind a little bit bringing in you know again duplicate businesses. We're right off the freeway. So how do we create a better strategy to be able to attract different types of businesses?

Okay. So it sounds like it would be a referral to evaluate strate larger standpoint evaluate strategies including reviewing of the zoning code to diversify business types is what I'm hearing. Yeah. And I know it's it's going to be complicated, but we have to start somewhere. So, if staff has any suggestions, at least you know that referrals out there. Um, obviously, we have to get consensus the next time around, but it's something that I would like to explore. Did you get that, Felen?

Is there any additional referrals? I would just like to make a comment to the city. Oh, Mr. Casey, you just pressed your button right away. Go ahead, sir. Here we go again. My referral would be that we form a uh budget committee made up of a person from each of the districts and then the mayor would have the option I mean the the authority to uh appoint somebody locally. And I think it's important that we uh do this and we do it very quickly so that that committee could be formed. I won't be around but you could start already in December January for the 27 28 fiscal year. I think it's important. And then tied to that, and we've talked about this and even said we're going to do it, but we never seem to do it in a proper way. I think we should have a quarterly review of how the budget's going. I don't know if that can be one one referral or it has to be two. Thank you.

Get that, city clerk. I was going to make a comment. City manager, I know you've been here only five five weeks, but there is a long list of referrals from council members that have not received any feedback on their referrals. Some some going back almost a year back. And I just would like to ask that you bring those referrals in accordance to the time frame that they were requested instead of jumping forward to referrals that were just made in January as an example. I think that that would be make make sure that we're more on a level playing field and I think that that's very important just because I've seen that list. I seen it when Doug left and you and me talked about it briefly and I just want to be fair to my fellow council members. That's not a referral. That's just a comment I guess.

And I can I just clarify? Are you talking about referrals that have not been acted on to gain consensus or are you talking about referrals after they have already been acted on the order in which they are worked on by staff? That would actually depend on how much work it takes for specific referral. But if there is a referral that was requested, but there was no there's been no feedback for almost a year, I think that's not fair. Got it. Thank you. But I just I would imagine that you with your best ability make that informative decision to to decide whether or not which one should move forward. But I just want to make sure my fellow council members here are being treated fairly.

Got it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Moving on to reports. I have nothing to report. Council members, waiting for the Christmas tree to light up. Okay, there we go. Councilwoman Riea,

thank you. Um, I'll try to make this fast. Just want to thank everyone that helped out with the street fair and even came out. Um, we had over a 100 booths. The committee did an amazing job. I appreciate everything the committee did to make it just amazing. And I was here both days almost the entire day. A lot of people here, a lot of vendors, a lot of food. And I appreciate everything they did. And I want to let them know that they did an amazing job. and I appreciate every minute of every second that they did to make this an amazing event. Again, um this past Saturday, I did go out, for those of you who not aware, we did partner with Turlock sports program for flag football over at Riverbluff. Although it's administered by Turlock, it is actually played here in series. So, it was ad uh played over at Riverbluff Park. This week we had three full we had a full day on all three fields of kids youth just playing flag football both male and female. It was not it was both genders out there. So it was good to see um even some everyone participate in the flag football and the parents were amazing and very supportive and I did like that. Um I was also here for the mindful May here um addressing the stigma of mental health in the community here at the community center. I appreciate the social work team from San State coming out and doing this workshop and presentation as well as putting forth some ideas when it comes to distressing and ways to cope through stressful situations. Um, tomorrow is going to be the red uh red dress gayla. It'll be here. Um, although the reservations have passed, this event is completely sold out as it does every year, but it is the final event due to cuts where the primoas were cut from here from series. They um have worked very hard to address health issues in the community and they're um out of the series partnership for healthy families here in series. Um they do have a lot of workshops uh food baskets giveaway and a lot of other

workshops um primarily focusing on children. So it's a great opportunity if you can partner with them. Um and I appreciate the braas presenting this event again on mental wellness. It is um strictly in Spanish and I appreciate them organizing this every year. Um Saturday, May 16th, MJC will be offering lowcost dog wash baths. Um it's training for the Vette students. Um they will be washing and kind of blow drying depending on the size and the thickness of the hair. Some dogs will not be completely dry. Um I have a St. Bernard and he never gets completely dry and he gets hair everywhere. But the kids, he loves it. So um just want to let you know there's some information online there. believe last year they were $10. Um, again, they're not cutting them, they're not grooming, they're just bathing them, kind of blow drying and brushing, brushing what they can quickly, and putting a little bow tie on them. So, it's kind of fun and it's great experience for our students and supporting our youth. Um, we recognize Shirley Rogers, so I won't I'll skip over that. She is going to be recognized by the board of supervisors on May 19th. Um May 30th series garden club is going to have the flower show over on Service Road from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Um there is a time in June, the first week I'm headed to a conference addressing mental health and alternative response to policing. I've really appreciate our police department taking the steps needed to send social workers out to mental health issues. our police are only responding in emergency situations. They're not addressing. And I appreciate them do doing that and partnering um to make sure that they're getting the mental help that they need in those crisis situations um and addressing what they need to address. So, I'll be headed to a conference. There is going to be it's not attached at all to city funds. I was able to get a grant to cover majority of those costs. So, I will be gone for a few days um at that conference. Thank you. Thank you very much, Council Member Casey.

Earlier this evening, a woman gave us a presentation about the poppies. Well, this weekend is Poppy weekend. So the 14th, 15th, and 16th at Walmart in front of the store, one of the entrances uh from I believe 10 to 2, uh there'll be the BFW will be distributing poppies and the money goes back to the uh BFW home for the veterans that need help. And then the following weekend uh is Memorial weekend and there's going to be a you know they need some help. The American Legion will be taking care of the flags and the Lions Club is grateful and very helpful in doing it making it easier this year. But everyone could come out and do that. help them put up the flags on that Saturday and then Memorial Day, I believe at 10 o'clock, there's going to be a a service and then help our budget. Buy your gas and series, buy all your taxable things at the Ace Hardware store.

Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just had two things. Uh first, Tuesday, June 2nd will be the inaugural concerts in the park for this year. Uh I just wanted to announce that so everyone's aware of that. And then my second thing was just to wish everybody in the council chambers uh and anyone watching on Zoom a late happy Mother's Day. Did you say June 2nd was cons?

Well, that's a problem. I don't know. Oh, June 9th. Oh, you scared me, sir. June 9th. You had me almost had a heart attack here, sir. Out June 9th to see Greg Stutter performing. Maybe we could have a presentation. See, now we're full of jokes. Love it. All right. Well, don't scare me like that, Vice Mayor. All right. City manager. I have no report tonight. Thank you. All right. Sounds good. The city attorney. Nothing tonight, mayor.

Okay. Departments. Yes. Good evening, council. I have a few um city of series along with Stanos Equity Partners is holding their six week cohort here at the community centers on Tuesday and Wednesday evening. Tuesday it is in Spanish from 5:30 to 7:30 and Wednesdays from 5:30 to 7:30 in English. Um they provide resources, networks and business pitch. At the end of the session, I believe there's a grant opportunity for those individuals. We also have um on May 18th um the six cycle housing element implementation. This is a workshop for the community. We encourage um council and the community to attend. They will be going over the implementation of the housing element um which will include some changes to the city ordinances on housing. Um and then we also have on May 21st from 9 to 12:45 the procurement expo. This is in conjunction the city of series workforce development SBDC and opportunity stance loss. Thank you. Any other department heads? Uh

thank you, mayor, council members. Uh just a quick update, Hatch Road, uh our next phase will be starting uh generally the week of May 26th. Uh so uh once that does start, traffic will be congested over there. Um so just steer clear if you can. Um the second thing I wanted to address was the uh traffic signal synchronization. Um, we do have all of our switches in for for our cabinets. Uh, we are looking at a mid June ship date for all of our new controllers. Um, so once those uh controllers come in and we get them all programmed, uh, then we will we will start the traffic synchronization on all of the corridors. So that's just a little update uh, from engineering.

Awesome. Anybody else? Okay, we'll now go ahead and go to close session for conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation California government code 54956.9. The name of the case is Ashley Ro City of Sirius Superior Court case number CV25009856. A conference with legal counsel regarding dissipation litigation for potential case 54956.92. A conference with labor negotiators California government code 55 excuse me 54957.6A. Agency designated representatives is intram city manager Steve Williams. Human resources director of Vasquez. Employee organization is Labor International Union of the North America Layuna. A public employment California government code 54957 titled city manager. Lastly, a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation California government code 54956.9. The name of the case is Matthew Berlier versus City of Series a public entity city of Series EAL Santa Superior Court case number CV 24007723. Is there anybody in the public that would like to speak regarding to any of these close session items? Seeing none, we are now adjourned. God bless everyone.

Welcome back everyone. Close session item 18 through 21. Direction has been provided. Item number 22, conference with legal counsel with Matthew Brillier versus City of Series. By 50 vote, the city council approved settlement of this matter subject to final approval by the city's risk pool board. The settlement provides for payment in the amount of $350,000 in exchange for dismissal of all claims. Good night.