Measure H Citizens' Oversight Committee - Regular Meeting

Welcome to today's Measure H Citizens Oversight Committee meeting. Today is Wednesday, May the 13th, in the year of our Lord, 2026. I now call this meeting to order.

Committee Member Huerta? Present. Committee Member Wells, absent. Committee Member Cerny?

Present.

Vice Chair Truffaut?

Present.

Chair Steele absent.

Well, the committee welcomes and encourages participation from committee members by the general public matters under the jurisdiction of the committee. not on the posted agenda may be addressed by the general public. However, the state of California prohibits the committee from taking action on any matter that's not posted on the agenda unless it is determined to be an emergency by the committee. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to comment? Have we received any type of correspondence?

We received no emails, and there are no hands raised on Zoom.

Well, then I'm going to say that the public comments portion is closed. Appointments?

Yes, thank you. Before you is a routine item where the committee members need to appoint a chair to the Measure H committee. Currently, that is Josh Steele. His one-year term of being chair is expiring, and his seat on the committee is also expiring June 30. So at this time, I will turn this over to the committee members to discuss and determine who they'd like to appoint as chair.

Any comments? I would like to make a motion that Mr. Truffaut be our chair.

Before, I'm sorry, before making a second, if you could open it up to the public.

I am so sorry. I'll open it up to the public for any comments. Seeing none, hearing none, we're going to close that portion. I second the motion.

Committee Member Huerta. Aye. Committee Member Wells absent. Committee Member Cerny.

Aye.

Vice Chair Trefa.

Aye.

Chair Steely absent. Motion carries 3-0 with two absent.

Consent calendar is next. 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 member or public for special consideration. Otherwise, the recommendation of staff will be accepted and acted upon in a roll call avoidance. Is there anyone in the committee that wants anything pulled? Negative. Anyone in the public that wishes anything pulled?

Then we'll need a motion. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the consent calendar.

I second the motion. Committee member Huerta? Aye. Committee member Cerny?

Aye.

And Chair Trefa?

Aye.

Motion carries 3-0.

That'll move us to a new business.

There is a hand raised, but we'll go ahead and take that at the time of public comment.

Do we need a motion then to approve the resolution?

I have a report for this new business. Good evening, committee chairs. I'm Vanessa Portillo, finance director with the City of Ceres. And before you tonight, it's the annual report of expenditures and revenues for Measure H for the year ending on June 30, 2024. This is an accountant's compliance report conducted using agreed upon procedures in accordance with attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Out of the eight agreed upon procedures that were performed, which are based on the appropriateness of the expenses charged to the fund, as well as ensuring all revenue applicable to the fund is properly recorded, There were no findings noted of any of the procedures conducted by the certified public accountants. And this report, to summarize it, it shows that the measure age received revenue Fiscal year 23-24 totaling $4.7 million, and there were expenditures totaling $5.8 million. Out of those, $3.4 million were related to police activities and $2.4 million were related to fire activities. The cash reserves at the end of fiscal year 23-24, they totaled $241,000. That concludes our report.

Thank you. Open this item up for the public comment.

We do have a hand raised on Zoom. Oh, OK. You can go ahead and unmute your mic.

Hello, this is Golan Guzman. Um, the re the reason I decided to speak today is because, um, if you take a look at the year, it's we're in 2026. And then this, this report was supposed to be done back in, or it was supposed to look, be looked at by the committee in 2025. Okay. So my concern is why wasn't it discussed in earlier years? Okay. Um, And a follow-up question is, is the committee going to schedule a special meeting to review the fiscal year 24 to 25 after the financial audit is done? Now, there's going to be two vacant positions, one which was filled – on Monday and another one that's going to be filled later on this month or next month. So there's a few committee members that are not going to be present. A couple committee members, Mr. Steele won't be present. He's not here present today, but I just have some concerns about the transparency. You know, you were supposed to review, this current committee was supposed to review the fiscal year 24 to 25, which it hasn't been done, your duty is to review the cost and the revenues and then also how it's spent each year. Usually a financial audit is done in December and January. But The city hasn't been doing that for the past two years. Okay. So this is a red flag and it should have been raised. Okay. So I'm just really concerned about the transparency of this committee, to be honest. Okay. I was looking at the minutes of previous meetings for Measure H. And there was a concern that was raised back in 2024 at the October meeting, October, I think it was like 13 of 2024, and someone mentioned a forensic audit for Measure H funds. Now, present in that committee was Mr. Cerny, Mrs. Huerta, uh, Mr. Seeley, vice chair Trufa, and then a committee member that was not, that is no longer on the committee. Um, but why, why was there, uh, I guess there, there was a concern for forensic audit for measure H funds. So I just, yeah, it just seems like you, you guys haven't been doing your job or your due diligence of, uh, of reviewing each fiscal year's Measure H funds. And that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you. That opened this up to staff.

Well, I'll take responsibility for the forensic audit. I did request a forensic audit a couple of years ago. And that request was forwarded on to the city council. And where it went from there, I have no idea.

I think we need a motion for this resolution.

I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve the resolution.

I second. Committee member Huerta?

Aye.

Committee member Cerny?

Aye.

Chair Truffaut?

Aye.

Motion carries 3-0.

Moving forward with the reports, Chief.

Good evening, committee members. So tonight, I have a couple things to report. Our major purchases out of Measure H are the Axon body camera and the tasers at $85,000, a little bit over that. And the other one is $2,500 for replacement patrol rifle parts. I'd also like to say that for the first time in years, While we are fully staffed at the police department, it's a little bit misleading. I still have three recruits in the academy and three trainees, but it's a really good feeling. When we have proper staffing, it's going to start bringing our overtime down, which I reported in the council meeting in October, we were at 1,600 hours of overtime in October. This last month of April, we're down to 700. So it was a huge cut. A couple of really good things are happening at the police department with staffing, and that will definitely help our budget. That's all I have.

Thank you. You mean the fire department doesn't have anything to report?

Thank you.

Thank you so much. And I am ready to close this meeting. Meeting is adjourned.