City Council - Regular Meeting

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Good morning everyone. Thank you all for being patient. I'm going to call this council meeting to order for February 26, 2026. City clerk, would you please call the role? Yes, thank you. Good morning. Council member Pereah, present. Council President Carbassi, here. Council member Arias, presente. Council member Maxwell, present. Council member Vang, present. Council member Richardson, here. Council Vice President Esparza, present. Seven members being present, we have a quorum.

Thank you so much. We're going to have the invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance. The pledge will be led by Council Member Richardson. City Clerk, would you please announce who our special guest is from St. Rest? Yes, thank you. Today, the invocation will be given by Pastor Bernard Jefferson, the youth pastor from St. Rest Baptist Church.

And like we do in court, all rise. Thank you. Gracious Father in heaven, we thank you this day for the gift of life, breath, and opportunity. Thank you for allowing us to gather together here this morning in unity and purpose. We are grateful for every person in attendance. For our mayor, our city council members, our civic leaders, our staff, community partners. God, we thank you for those who rose this morning with a desire to serve and to make a difference in the lives of others. Lord, we lift the city of Fresno up to you. We thank you for the its diversity. We thank you for its resilience, God. We thank you for the history and its promise. God, we ask that you will grant wisdom to our leaders as they make decisions with integrity. Give them discipline to do what is right. Give them courage to stand for justice, compassion for every resident that they represent. May every decision be made within the walls of here. Heavenly Father God, guide us all in unity and in fairness. Heavenly Father, guide us. God, allow us to understand the weight of the opportunity that sits in front of us. Heavenly Father God, bless our neighbors and our neighborhoods. Heavenly Father God, wrap your arms around this city in times of challenge. And God, also bless us with progress. God, let peace and hope rise in the corners of each community that represents Fresno. Heavenly Father God, God, this great city, this great people. God, entrust the God. You entrusted

these leaders, Heavenly Father God. So God, bless them. bless their minds heavenly father god in Jesus name we pray God we thank you for everyone here again in Jesus name amen

of the United States of America to the One nation, indivisibley andice for all.

Thank you so much, city clerk. Are there any changes or items removed from the agenda, including the special agenda?

Yes, there are. Thank you. First of all, I would like to note that we do have interpreters and translation services available for today's council meeting. We do have Spanish and Punjabi available on the Wordley system. We're also having tablets and assistance devices up front if you are in need of those. Virtual interpreters in the Mong language are provided as well as virtual American Sign Language interpreters. I'd also like to remind uh members of the public that the front of the DAS uh seats are reserved for media members. As to the changes for the agenda, a separately noticed special meeting today at 9:00 am or thereafter for an open session item file ID 26-272 regarding approve and amended and restated disposition and development agreement between the city of Fresno, the city of Fresno in its capacity as housing successor and the Park Partners LLC for city-owned property located at 815 Fulton Street. Ceremonial presentation regarding proclamation for the 60th anniversary of Mike's Pizzeria. The title has been updated to proclamation of the 64th anniversary of Mike's Pizzeria lounge and Italian dinners. Regarding item 2M, ID26-181 regarding actions pertaining to the Park at South Stadium project, a 174 unit multifamily housing development project to resolution in support of a contribution of city funds in an amount not to exceed the correction should be made 3,727,000 towards the housing development project located on 815829835 Fulton Street, Fresno, California subject to mayor's veto. Resolution number two has been updated to reflect the new dollar amount of $3,727,000. The date in the staff report and the resolutions has also been revised to May

15, 2026 instead of the previously stated April 30th, 2026. The revised documents were uploaded to Legistar on February 24th, 2026 as a supplement. Regarding item 2T ID 26-234 regarding resolution to establish a 20 mph primaascia speed limit in school zones. The resolution is subject to mayoral veto and should have three asterisks before the title and in parenthesis subject to mayor's veto end parenthesis should be listed at the end of the title. Items removed from the agenda. Item 2F, ID26-197 regarding actions pertaining to the runway 11L-29R reconstruction project at Fresno Yusede International Airport was moved to the March 26, 2026 meeting by staff. Additional changes items have been moved to contested consent for further discussion. Item 2N ID 26-182 regarding actions pertaining to Uptown LP for Uptown Apartments rental housing development located at 1510 Vaness Avenue in downtown Fresno has been moved to contested consent by council member Richardson. Item 2T ID 26-234 regarding resolution to establish a 20 m per hour primaascious speed limit in school zones has been moved to contested consent by council member Richardson. No further changes.

Okay. Just just for the record, can you read what items are on contested consent now? Item 2 N as in Nancy and 2T. Great. So at this time just two items 2 N and 2T are uncontested consent. Okay. Council members, are there any other items you wish to remove, continue, or pull from consent for discussion? Council member PA. Council member Arus, no. Council member Maxwell. Council member Bang? None. Council member Richardson. Council Vice President? No. Okay. There being none, is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended? So moved. Second.

Moved by Council Member Arya. Second by Council Member Maxwell. Any opposition? There being none, the agenda is passed 720. Thank you very much. And to our ceremonial presentations. Uh the first presentation will be a proclamation for Dr. James Aldridge. The sponsors are council member Maxwell and the office of mayor and city manager. Council member, you have the floor.

Thank you. And if I could please get all the family members and loved ones of doctor to join me up here at the front. Thank you. over.

Yeah, we'll have some of you come on over to this side. Y'all want to come over? Even it out a little bit on this side.

All righty. We got the whole extended family up here with us today.

Well, good morning everybody. Uh, for those of you that aren't familiar, Dr. Aldridge was not only a cool-looking dude. He was a Fresn, he was a man of God. He was a husband, a son, a father to three. He was an athlete. He was a trailblazer. He was a champion for education. He worked his whole life to make sure that black people could be in spaces that they traditionally had not been welcomed into. He advocated for young people, for higher education, and was the first and only black city manager for the city of Fresno. Dr. Aldridge moved to Fresno when he was only four years old in the early 1940s. His mom wanted a better life for him and his little brother, and they moved to Fresno, and the sins of redlinining were still alive and well. But as I've heard from the family today, Dr. Aldridge's mother, the matriarch of the family, she made sure that her sons had their priorities straight and she made sure she pushed them uh academically and athletically. And uh Dr. Aldridge was a star athlete at Edison High School. He signed in to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates at just 17 years old when the average age at the time in this country was 22 going into the major leagues. He had some phenomenal statistics but unfortunately suffered a careerending injury uh before he could really take off in his athletic pursuits. And I was thinking about that this morning. You know, if you had your whole career planned in front of you and something like that came up and took things sideways, I don't know how I would have taken that. But Dr. Aldridge didn't let that get in the way of helping others in this community and giving back. and he went to work for the city of Fresno and obtained an associates at Fresno City

College, a bachelor's at Fresno State University. He got his master's and PhD at UCLA. He attended Oxford University. He taught at many of those universities as well. Um, and ultimately served State Center Community College, Fresno Unified, uh, Fresno State and different capacities before becoming the city of Fresno's first ever black city manager. and he has done so much for the entire city of Fresno, but in particular Southwest Fresno, where he has really made it a point to bring resources, dollars, and recognition to the people and businesses and stories taking place in Southwest Fresno. And so, uh, today we are here in honor of his life. Unfortunately, he passed away just a few months ago in October, but his legacy is alive and well. We could feel it in this building. Um, we could feel it across the city of Fresno. So many people have interacted with this man and he has touched so many lives and been a part of so many lives. And today I'm just honored to share this moment with his amazing family and neighbors and friends and loved one up here today. I want to say thank you very much for sharing him with the city of Fresno and being here with us today. I'm going to hand it off to the mayor to say a few words, but God bless you guys. Thank you.

Good job. Good job, Tom. I think uh council member Maxwell summed it up very well in terms of the history and the importance of uh Dr. Jim Aldridge uh to our city. I had the privilege uh of working with Jim as did Jackie Ral, but uh he was a city manager when I was the internal affairs sergeant. And so uh I had the uh distinct privilege of taking uh documents over, sitting down with him, um explaining them, having him sign those documents. Uh and and oftentimes when you're a lower level employee in a city, you really don't want to go into the city manager's office. Uh be because uh that's just off limits. That's the Holy of Holies. And but in in Jim Aldridge's case, it was always an honor and a pleasure. And I'm going to tell you why. That smile uh is a smile I always remember. Um he always had a pleasant personality. Uh yes, he was a man of faith, but he was so calm and so peaceful. Uh he could manage a crisis like no one else. Uh people would go into his office. I remember going in there with the chief then Max DS and it'd be a a crisis at hand and he would be so calm and so at peace and just had a wisdom about him that um was unexplainable um other than him being a man of God. And uh so it was uh it was an honor for me. And yes, he was the first African-American city manager. And yes, he was a trailblazer and he yes, he was an advocate, but he was so much more than that. This guy was super competent, super intelligent, super articulate and his personality is something that I will remember my entire life. So an honor today. Sorry for the loss. Uh, but Jim Ald uh Aldridge's legacy will live on

live on in this city forever. I promise you. God bless you guys. Thank you, mayor, council member. Um, so I'm the city manager now and but I've been in in city hall for nearly 25 years. So I have had the opportunity and honor to be in Dr. Aldridge's presence many times. But um when I became city manager in 2022 um I was in a meeting with him or bumped into him um outside of city hall in a meeting and um I I got that beautiful Dr. Jim Aldridge voice of well young lady um and and reminding me of of you know congratulations and you know I don't know if you know but I was and I'm like of course I know um you know you are a legend in city hall. Uh, and so, uh, I thought it was a kind of funny that he was trying to remind me of who he was. And I think that's because he was so humble in in that respect. Um, and I think, you know, that comes from the place of of the the wisdom and the the the man of God that he was. Um, because he was a very humble individual. Um, Vance Beers, who helps us with the the technology in this room, brought in today a a plaque of his employee of the quarter from 1990, that was signed by Dr. Aldridge, and he still has it in a frame. He's over there in the corner. Um, and brought it in and said, "Look, I have this from Dr. Jim Aldridge." Um, so those those mean things to our employees, and there are many employees still in this building who um had the honor of working under him. Um I'm not known for being peaceful and calm. Um and so um I um did not um inherit that city manager wisdom from him. Um but um

I I do hope that you know um when I leave this building finally that you know maybe there'll be just a handful of people that will say um just a little bit uh good as opposed to the hundreds and hundreds of people that Dr. Aldridge affected in this building. So, um, thank you to the family and friends for sharing him with the city of Fresno, um, because he definitely left his mark. So, thank you.

Can I get a member of the family to say a few words? Of course. Okay. Not to put you on the spot. I know. Don't put me on the spot. So, um, just hearing everything he's done is amazing, but also I know that he always planned for the future. So in his in his ending, he has a foundation in the name of James Aldridge. And that foundation has everything all of his all of his what is it? All every everything he makes is going to this foundation. And the rule was give back. Go back. Do what you can do. So I guess I'll be out. Don has me out moving a lot more trying to get everything done that I'm supposed to do. But he did set a mission and a plan for us too.

Thank you very much. I'm going to ask everybody to join me in a quick moment of silence as we recognize the life and legacy of Dr. James Aldridge. Thank you everybody. Mr. Mayor, if I could please have you read the last part of this proclamation for the family today.

Thank you, Tyler. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer and the Freso City Council, encourage all residents to honor his historic achievements, his dedication to public service, and his legacy as a pioneer educator and champion for justice, equity, and inclusion. and do hereby proclaim Thursday, February 26, 2026 as Dr. James Jim Aldridge Day in the city of Fresno. Congratulations. Congratulations you guys each and every one of you. City clerk. Thank you.

Whereas Dr. James Jim Aldridge made history as the city of Fresno's first and only black city manager, breaking barriers and opening doors for generations of civic leaders. And whereas having come to Fresno at the age of four and raised in Southwest Fresno, Dr. Eldridge grew into a leader grounded in faith and resilience, committed to fairness, dignity, and service to the community he loved. And whereas after graduating from Edison High School in 1956 and briefly pursuing professional baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, Dr. Eldridge returned home following a careerending injury and forged a new path in public service, guided by his passion for education and civic engagement. And whereas while working full-time for the city of Fresno, he pursued higher education with extraordinary determination, earning degrees from Fresno City College and California State University, Fresno, later obtaining a master's degree and doctorate in organizational development from the University of Southern California and further broadening his perspective through studies at Oxford University. He went on to share his knowledge as an instructor at Fresno City College, the University of San Francisco, and California State University, Fresno. And whereas his career in city government began in the recreation department and culminated in his service as interim city manager in 1978 and 1983 and as city manager from 1986 to 1990, during which he guided Fresno through pivotal years with memorable steadiness and a deep sense of responsibility to the communic community he cherished. And whereas as a trailblazer and advocate, Dr. Eldridge confronted systemic inequities and worked tirelessly to expand opportunity for the African-American community and for all who had been historically marginalized, ensuring that the principles of justice were not merely spoken, but lived. And whereas his lifelong commitment to service and to the Fresno community earned him numerous honors and cemented his place as a

respected champion for civil rights and a beacon of hope for those striving for equality. And whereas after a lifetime devoted to the people of Fresno, Dr. James Aldridge passed away in October 2025 and the city of Fresno now pauses to honor his extraordinary legacy, courageous leadership, and his enduring impact upon the history and future of our community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer and the Fresno City Council encourage all residents to honor his historic achievements, his dedication to public service, and his legacy as a pioneer, educator, and champion for justice, equity, and inclusion, and do hereby proclaim Thursday, February 26th, 2026 as Dr. James Jim Aldridge Day in the city of Fresno. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And thank you to the family for being here and thank you to the mayor, city manager, and council member Maxwell. Next proclamation will be for Andrea Andrade Day and the the sponsors are the office of mayor and city manager and council member Vang. Council member and mayor, you'll have the floor.

I'm going to go ahead and hand the mic over to council member Vang. He'll start this off. Uh but if we could have uh Chris uh you and Andrea's family come on up here, please. You guys want to go on both sides here and and uh you got one more photo, do you not?

Yeah, I'll turn it over to Council Member Vang at this time. Thank you very much, Mayor. February is cancer awareness month and today we are here at city hall in the city of Fresno to acknowledge, recognize and remember the late Andrea Andrade. She lost her life to cancer about a month ago. She was a valiant fighter. She defeated colon cancer once but that ugly disease came back and took her from us. I did not have the privilege to meet Andrea, but I felt her pain. I did not get the opportunity to talk to her, but I've heard her loud because I am a cancer survivor myself. And to her parents, her brothers, and her sisters, we mourn your loss as well. Andrea used her platform to bring awareness to this deadly disease in many uh capacities. She started a music program focusing on the youth. Again, she was only 35 years old when she left us. And so she knew that the youth represents the future and she devote devoted 100% of her time, energy and effort to them as well. She also started program not our heroes who wear cape. Heroes come in many forms. Superman, Batman, our heroes, but the heroes such as Andrea, the heroes, our next door neighbors, those are our heroes. And

while she was going through treatment, she participated in beauty pageantss. Just imagine that going through treatments, chemo, radiation, at the same time doing something that you love, which is participating in beauty pageantss. That was who she was. That's how strong she was. And so two days before we leave the month of February, we want to bring awareness to everybody that keys to defeating this deadly disease are early detection and early treatment. And so if Andrea was here, she would probably give you the same recommendation. And so we are here today to honor the late Andrea Andradi. And um I'm gonna have uh Andre's husband Chris Wilson and also his brother Junior Andred say a few words. Chris,

thank you. Just want to thank Mayor, council, uh, all the staff for this honor today. Uh, Andrea loved being in front of the camera. She loved speaking publicly. Not something I'm as good at, but I ask her for her strength today. Andrea Andrade was the very best of us. She represented the most extraordinary qualities of Fresno. beauty, strength, resilience, faith, compassion, and pride. Born in Mexico and raised here in this county, this country, Andrea didn't just live in Fresno. She represented Fresno. Everywhere she went, she carried this community with her heart. Five times she wore the title of Miss Fresno. Five times she stood on a national stage and was crowned. But her greatest gift was never her crown. From beauty queen to cancer advocate, Andrea represented the city with honor and unwavering pride. Anyone who saw her wearing that sash felt something bigger than pageantry. They felt community. They felt hope. She represented this region to the fullest. Andrea was a fighter. But even more than that, she was a lover. Even in her deepest pain, she shared God's love with people that needed it the most. While she was hurting, she was healing others. Andrea showed us what God's love looks like in action. To live without reservation. To embrace every moment. To love unconditionally. Her relentless pursuit of her dreams, even in the battle of her life, showed us what all of us what's possible, what courage looks like, what faith looks like. She chose joy. She chose to smile. She chose to dance. And she chose to laugh. In doing so, she gave us an example of how

to live our lives. Even while fighting for her own life, Andre Andrea chose to fight for others. She visited children battling cancer at Valley Children's. She delivered Easter baskets. She took them to grizzly games and let them light off the fireworks with their magic powers. She gave them hope. She gave their parents relief. She gave them love. That is who she was. Andrea's mission does not end with her physical life. It continues today through all of us. Now, it is our mission to carry it forward. Our mission to endure. Our mission to bring light to families on their darkest days. Andrea's legacy is not just a memory. It's an example of life. To live fully, to help others, to laugh in the face of darkness. Andrea is our guiding light. She is our hero. Thank you so much. Good morning.

Um, on behalf of my family, we want to sincerely thank the city of Fresno, uh, mayor, councilman, and everybody that was involved, you know, with this today uh, with, uh, honoring my sister. The proclamation means more to us than words can express. My sister dedicated her heart to children fighting cancer. She cared for them, supported them, and brought them comfort during some of their hardest days. She had a way of making them smile even in moments that felt heavy. What makes her story even more powerful is that she was fighting her own battle. And yet, you would never hear her complain. In fact, she would joke around and pretend like she wasn't sick at all. That was just her. Always putting others first, always trying to lift the room, even when she was carrying so much herself. She showed us what real strength looks like. And not physical strength, but emotional strength. The kind that chooses love over fear, laughter over pain, and service over self. As her brother, I am beyond proud of her. Proud of her courage, proud of her heart, proud of her impact that she made in the community. Even though she is no longer with us physically, her light is still here. It lives in the children that she cared for, the families she supported, and in all of us who were blessed to know her. Thank you for recognizing her life and her legacy. We will carry her love forward every single day. We love you, Andrea. to close this part of the ceremony. Mayor Dyer,

I want to uh begin by offering my uh sincere condolences to the family uh for the loss of a a beautiful young lady. Uh Chris, you and I have known each other for many, many years. And uh I've ran into Andrea many times over the years. Uh such a beautiful young lady. Um, and we may never know uh the reason why things like this happen in life, but we do know that we have a loving God. And we do know that where she is today, the Bible tells us that there's no pain, there's no suffering, there's no tears, there's no cancer. And so, we got to believe that today she's in the loving arms of your Lord and Savior and uh she is painfree. And that is what you can take comfort in. And you can also take comfort in uh the memories. I know in times like this it's hard to celebrate life because we mourn the loss but it is so important to reflect on the memories um and all the things that she did. We're here to celebrate a life of a of a competitor five times competed for Miss California won Miss Fresno uh and uh someone who was selfless who was sacrificial who gave of herself um so that uh others might be able to benefit from her. And so we know um that she's in a better place. We know that she's left a legacy behind. Uh and she has all of you to carry on that legacy and Chris to carry on the foundation. And so uh I do want to read this at the at the end because this is always the most what I think to be the most important part of a proclamation. Now therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry Dyer, and members of the Fresno City Council, do hereby proclaim Thursday, February 26, 2026 to be Andrea Andrade Day in the city of Fresno.

Clerk, if you'd please read the proclamation. Thank you. Whereas Andrea Andrade won five beauty pageantss, competed for the Miss California crown, and started a program to help children and their families deal with challenging medical diagnosis, all while battling cancer. And whereas after nearly a decade battling cancer, which included various cancer treatments, Andrea passed on January 16th. She was just 35. Andrea believed God gives the toughest battles to the strongest warriors. And Andrea was a strong warrior. She didn't let cancer define her life. She lived every day to the fullest. And whereas Andrea's battle began in 2017 when she was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer and underwent colurectal surgery to remove the tumor. This did not stop her from competing in a beauty contest while undergoing follow-up treatment and a chemotherapy port in her chest. And whereas after being in remission for roughly two years, the cancer returned this time stage four and in her reproductive system, Andrea was determined to exceed the doctor's original prognosis of only 6 months to two years to live. And whereas while undergoing various cancer treatments in her final years, Andrea and her husband Chris Wilson opened a business together promoting concerts and events. They also started a music education program to help students learn to play instruments, sing, dance, produce music, and perform. Through all this, she was open about her battle with cancer in hopes of inspiring others, Andrea used her platform to tell her story as a way to bring awareness about early screenings. And whereas her most impactful program was Not All Heroes Wear Capes, where she visited children's cancer wards and also brought these patients and their families to Fresno Grizzly baseball games. For numerous years, the Fresno Grizzlies held Not All Heroes Wear Capes Knights to recognize and honor children battling cancer. And whereas Andrea loved her family over everything, my family gives

me reason. They give me strength and lots of will to live. Now therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer and members of the Fresno City Council, do hereby proclaim Thursday, February 26, 2026 to be Andrea Andrade Day in the city of Fresno. Thank you. Thank you so much, mayor and council member, and to the family for being here today. Next, the last ceremonial presentation of the day will be a proclamation for the 64th anniversary of Mike's Pizzeria Lounge and Italian Dinners. Council member, you're making us hungry.

Thank you.

All right. Good morning, everyone. I'm Council Member Perea and it's my great honor to be here today as we celebrate a restaurant that has stood the test of time for over 64 years. A restaurant that has been at the same location for over 64 years. a restaurant who not only has served incredible food uh to the Fresno community for over 64 years, but a restaurant that is strong in family tradition and family excellence. And so I'm going to invite up the Denuzo family. Please join me up here, Peter Denuzo. Now, this gentleman right here, I've had the great privilege of working with him since becoming a council member um to partner together to do to give back to the community. We've partnered to find money to um install security cameras to increase safety at the Shields in West Corner. We have worked together to find money to install energy efficient appliances in his restaurant to help the family business save money each and every month. Um, and many people may not know, including probably the family, but my first job was with the Denuzo family. My first job was working at MMA Mia's. And so I learned firsthand the importance of family sticking together. I was working side by side making pizzas with Mike and Lorenzo and and little Michael and um the rest, Giana, the rest of the family. And so and and I babysat them, too. That's how old I am. I babysat those kids and now they're grown up and they have their own kids. And so I just want to thank you um Peter for your investment into our community. Every time I'm I'm at the restaurant, you're there every day. Um I'm pro I'm sure you have many late nights and early mornings and um I can't imagine running a restaurant in particular is the easiest thing and and quite frankly I think it's one of the most difficult things. um you know, we're working

really hard to do our part as a city to to invest in that same neighborhood because it's our duty to give back to those who had who have invested so much into this great city. Um and so today the other the other really important thing which we don't do this very often u but we have two very special guests in this audience and they don't know that they're getting a proclamation today too. So, Michael and Angelina, can you guys join me up here as well? These individuals that we have up here today are the foundation of the Denuzo family. Literally and figuratively, we wouldn't they would not be here today if if it was not for these two fine individuals um who migrated here from Italy. Now, where where do you guys live today? What city?

You're in Fresno. Okay. Um, I want to thank you for your resilience to the industry. I want to thank you to your commitment and your investment into our wonderful city. I know you have family and friends here in the audience who have all gathered together to honor the family legacy. And so today, it is my great honor to declare Mike's Pizzeria Lounge and Italian dinner 64th anniversary day in the city of Fresno. Congratulations, Peter. But we have to celebrate our foundation as well. And so it is also my great honor to declare today in the entire city of Fresno as Mike and Angelina Denuzo Day. Congratulations.

Thank you. You're welcome. I'm going to hand the mic to Peter to say a few words. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. It was surprise. I didn't know that.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, we hope that was a surprise for you. want to thank uh all your hard work, the mayor for all the participation uh city council and yes uh city's been great helping us continue doing business in the neighborhood uh with all the challenges that we face. Um all that the ones that don't know me, my name is Peter Denuzo. I'm one of the mics. There's several of us like you heard Mama Mia. I've got my sister here. I've got my son here. Um, we've expanded a few different restaurants. Uh, Mike's Pizzeria has been around on that corner for 64 years. Uh, my parents both started it. There's no way I could have put in 64 years without them getting started with it. And, uh, hopefully I can continue doing what I'm doing. My son is also doing the same thing with Roma's. He's, uh, continuing the legacy. Different location, different neighborhood, but we're still doing it. Um, I want to thank everybody again for this day. It was a great honor. Uh, for all the friends and family that showed up here, I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

So, so under the family Denuzo name, they have Roma's, they have Mama Mia, and they have Mike's Pizzeria. So, if you not, if you have not had a chance to visit, my nephew is Luigi's He's in the truck. And we have Luigi's a mobile food truck on Blackstone. And Shaw. All right. So, if you have not had a chance to visit one of these incredible restaurants, I highly encourage you to do so soon.

City clerk. Thank you. Whereas Mike's Pizzeria Lounge and Italian Dinners was founded in 1962 by Italian immigrants Mike and Angelina Denuzo at the corner of West and Shields Avenues, bringing with them cherished family recipes and a simple dream to serve honest handmade food that brings people together, just as it did around their own family table. And whereas what began as a small neighborhood pizzeria quickly became a beloved gathering place known for its handmade pastas and legendary pizza, setting a lasting standard of authenticity and quality that continues to draw generations of Fresno families. And whereas over the decades, the Denuzo family legacy has been faithfully carried forward under the leadership of their son, Peter Denuzo, who has preserved the original recipes, trademark hospitality, and vintage character of the restaurant while maintaining a welcoming and steady presence in our community. And whereas the commitment to remain in its original West and Shields location reflects a deep respect for the neighborhood that embraced the Denuzo family more than 60 years ago, many generations of residents have celebrated birthdays, milestones, and everyday meals within its familiar walls. And whereas the Denuzo family continues to serve our community, ensuring that Mike's Pizzeria and Italian dinners remains not just a restaurant, but a Fresno landmark. Now therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer, Council Member Analisa Pereah, and the Fresno City Council members, do hereby recognize Thursday, February 26, 2026 to be Mike's Pizzeria, Lounge, and Italian Dinner's 64th anniversary day in the city of Fresno.

Thank you.

Well, that was a wonderful celebration. and council member PA, thank you for ending us strong today. Okay, next we're going to move on to council member reports and comments. Before we get to that, I just want to state there were some comments raised, I think, at the last council meeting or since then about quorum at council meetings. I want to be really clear. I've been advised by our former city clerk and uh legal council in the past that quorum is necessary in order to h hear action items, but there are things like workshops, proclamations, and unscheduled unscheduled communication which are items that are not agendaized. And for that, we do not need a quorum because the meeting is continuous and it is not being reopened. So unless I hear otherwise, we will continue following that practice. But I do know our legal council is looking into it right now just to double check. Thank you for bringing that item forward and we're going to move uh on with our meeting today. Thank you so much.

So at this time we're going to move to council member reports and comments. We will start with council district 1. Yep.

Thank you, council president. Just a couple updates. I want to start by thanking our public works department. Right now we are trimming trees all throughout District 1. Uh we also have a number of concrete repairs in the pipeline. And so if you are in a neighborhood that has um been experiencing lifted sidewalks or um uh sidewalks that have not stood the test of time over the years, um we are likely coming to a neighborhood near you. If you have not reported your cracked sidewalk yet, I want to highly recommend that you reach out to my office so we can get your um your concrete repair in the pipeline. Um, secondly, I just want to note that we have several upcoming events coming up and so if you do not already do so, um, please follow us on social media and we hopefully will be in a neighborhood near you, um, either hosting a community give back event or a public community forum. Um, lastly, it has come to my attention and recent and even hit uh national news that we have a registered sex offender that is currently running for Fresno City Council. Um, while I respect anybody's ability to serve our community, I find this quite disturbing that we um could possibly have somebody of this nature within our government buildings. Um, I think if you want to be an effective council member, you need to at the very least be able to go onto school campuses. I would like to know that I can bring my children into city hall if ever need be. And so I know um I I believe several of my colleagues share similar um feelings. And so I look forward to working with them to bring forth legislation to um limit somebody's ability to serve publicly if they do carry that that um badge on them. Thank you very much.

Thank you, council member. And I think uh the majority of the coun all the council agrees with you on that point. Um just a reminder folks, I know we're very excited about celebrating some of our populations today, but please take conversations outside the chamber because there are others that want to hear the council members speak. I do want to mention before we go to council member Arius, we do have our former city clerk, Jackie Riyle, here today. So, we're going to call you out. Thank you for being here. Happy to see you. Okay. And with that, Council Member Arius, good seeing you, Jackie. All of us, we better be in our best behavior. If not, Jackie will bring out her ruler. Uh, city manager, I want to say thank you to our public works engineers. Last night, we had our second of a series of neighborhood meetings in West Fresno regarding the measure C funded Cesar Chaveis Boulevard improvements. and your public works engineers are getting much better at being comfortable interacting with the audience, providing a description of their projects in what I call basic English and making it make sense to the public and also hearing some of the historical frustrations of neighborhoods while being very respectful and engaging. So, thank you for public works for doing that. Also, thank you to uh Tree Fresno for planting several trees in the Tower District this past weekend, as well as um invite those to join us for the upcoming Beautify Fresno event on February 28th. That will focus on Chinatown and the meeting place will be Central Fish. For those of you who've never been, I invite you to attend. It's a great place to grab some fish and eat lunch. Um and congratulations to Los Amigos. Um, I think I saw some photos of you guys doing the grand opening of Mad Duck and Los Amigos at the airport. Ishikes, Los Amigos not there yet.

We had a little construction incident, so stay tuned for a couple more in couple more weeks.

So, I'll save my Mexican appetite for another day. Um but and lastly I I I did hear um some of the concerns of a potential future or former Epstein type candidate coming to this dis. I I do want to be very clear. Um these is a public building. These are public chambers. Any given Thursday we have kids in this room. We have families. And the last thing I want to be concerned about is whether there's a registered uh sex offender in these chambers and whether we have to exit the whole building in order to have a public hearing or hear something of importance. So, I look forward to legal counsel working on an agenda item uh for this council to adopt that would ensure um no sex offender gets to serve in this role without some significant precautions um in place that safeguard the general public's um and the employees that we have in this building. Um with that, thank you, Council President.

Thank you so much, Council Member. Next, we're going to move to Council Member Maxwell.

Thank you, Council President. It's been a busy couple of weeks in District 4. Um, I had the opportunity to meet with the nonprofit Safe to School. This is a volunteer network of mostly mothers that serve as crossuards across elementary schools in the city of Fresno and are advocating for better infrastructure, more safety, and more education around uh speeding and school sites in the city of Fresno. So, I think it's uh really appropriate, Council Member Sparza, that you're bringing forward that uh that item today to reduce the speed limits around some of these sensitive sites like schools. And they even had me go out to Ericson Elementary to volunteer for a morning and it is pretty scary out there. I almost got hit by a car. Um our city needs to get off their phones. They need to pay attention. They need to drive the speed limit, especially when they're going through a school zone. And so I look forward to supporting your item later today. Council member Esparza also had the opportunity to visit Education Leadership Foundation. Uh this is a nonprofit that does a lot of work with uh immigrant community here in our city making sure that they have advocacy, education, tutoring, and immigration services. This has been really vital the past uh 14 15 months when there's been an increase in uh what I would describe as uh very fearful tactics across the United States and especially here in our own backyard when it revolves around uh the safety of our immigrant community. And so I want to thank Mario, their executive director, and all their staff for being so kind and welcoming me in to their business and letting me know about some of the amazing work they're doing with vulnerable populations here in our own backyard. I also sat down and was part of a ASI round table. This is the student leadership at Fresno State. We had uh a couple dozen senators, vice president and president of ASI sit down

and talk to me about the issues that they're facing on campus. Again, a lot of those issues revolve around speeding around campus and a lot of issues revolving around electric scooters on campus as well, which is the number one uh source of injury on the Fresno State campus, believe it or not. So, I appreciate all the student body leadership at Fresno State for being part of that round table with me. Last week, I also got to join our esteemed former city clerk, Jackie Riyle, at the Fresno Cultural Arts Rotary Club at CMAC. and I want to thank you and the organization for allowing me that opportunity to talk about my story and for all the great work that you're doing in the community um making sure that arts cultural arts continue to be a priority and accessible for everybody across the city of Fresno. So, thank you Jackie and everybody Dr. Riyle and that and that organization. Uh last week we also went out to Lou Gentile's flower shop. They were our district 4 business of the month. They are located on Blackstone and Shaw southeast corner. Uh, I try to buy my wife flowers there at least once a month. If I don't, she won't let me forget it. But they are affordable, beautiful flowers. They're a locally owned business. Um, they're a small mom and pop type shop. Um, if you're going to buy flowers, I just encourage anybody to get them from Lu Gentilely. They've been around for 60 years here in the city of Fresno and they do an amazing job at what they do. I also had the opportunity of kicking off the Fresno Roller Hockey uh league's uh game last week. Um we recently made upgrades to the Kerry Park hockey rink. So, thank you to our parks department for working with us on that, making sure they have the baseboards and the surface and lining necessary to play roller hockey at Kerry Park. Uh I was very honored. They presented me with my very own jersey. Uh I didn't embarrass myself and play, but uh it was fun to watch them. um use and uh utilize that new space that we have built out there for them. Uh last week we also went out to the

Fresno Animal Center. Um we got to see the different dogs and cats that are up for adoption. They have always some amazing deals going on at the Fresno Animal Center. If you're looking to foster or adopt a dog or a cat, they have opportunities there for you. And I promise if you go, you're going to fall in love with something out there and probably come home with something. So just be warned. Uh there's a lot of cute animals out there. There's a lot of formerly abused animals out there that really need a forever home and really need a foster care as well. Couple other updates. Last week I went out to Duncan Polytechnical High School which is in our district. I had an opportunity to view behind the scenes the robotics uh uh the robotics course. Uh the courses revolved around working on semi-truckss, pharmaceuticals, uh all the different real world real world career skills they're teaching these kids at Duncan Polytech is truly amazing. They're making sure that they're ready to go into a four-year college when they graduate or ready to enter into a highpaying job, whether that's a nursing or industry when they graduate. And so, thank you to the principal and vice principal of Duncan Polytech and all the students for taking me on a tour last week. I also want to thank my staff who organized a clothing drive at Stone Soup last week. We were able to serve about 50 families headto toe with warm clothing. Um there's a lot of warm clothing drives that go on around Christmas time and they kind of die off in the new year. And so this is something my staff really led the effort on and we were able to help 50 families and children last week get jackets, sweatpants, socks, and coats to keep them warm until springtime here in the city of Fresno. Uh, also last week we broke ground on new Vinland pickle ball and football courts uh that'll be coming to District 4. We want to make sure that we have spaces across all of our parks. Regardless of what kind of sport you want to play, we know that those are two

fast growing sports here in the city of Fresno, football and pickle ball. And we have an anticipated ribbon cutting later this summer. Lastly, a couple days ago, I went to Care Fresno to do a program site visit. Um, this is an organization that works with really disenfranchised youth across the city of Fresno. They partner often with the Fresno Police Department, local churches and elementary schools to make sure that children have an afterchool program available to them to help boost their reading comprehension skills, literacy skills, and their math skills. Um, they're really working on a shoestring budget, but if you have not heard of this organization before, again, their name is Care Fresno, and they are doing some amazing work in our community. And I just want to say how much I appreciate the work that they do. And with that, that'll conclude my remarks. Oh, actually big one yesterday. Sorry, I forgot. We did the ribbon cutting on a couple of restaurants yesterday at the Fresno Euseite International Airport. I've done a lot of traveling to major cities across the United States. And one thing a lot of those airports have in common is that they have local brands, local restaurants, local beers to welcome you to that city. It's your first impression and the last taste you have of that city. And so we were able to do the ribbon cutting on Mad Duck Brewery. Uh it's a great restaurant with great food and great beer as well as Ike's Love & Sandwiches and Los Amigos, which will hopefully be opening up in the next couple of months and the new international terminal as well. So thank you to all those business owners and uh and folks who were part of that program yesterday. Thank you, Council President.

Sure. Terrific. Great updates, Council Member Maxwell. Thank you so much. Next, we're going to have Council District 5 followed by Council District 6. Enforcer.

Thank you very much, Council President Karbassi. I just have a few items to report. This past Saturday, I attended a community cleanup at Fenture Creek Elementary Elementary School. And I want to thank the uh Beautify Fresno people to come out uh and help clean that neighborhood. Also uh part of that uh cleanup uh were students uh from Fresno Pacific University students. And actually the uh women's volleyball team came out that Saturday morning to help. And uh I want to thank the uh kids and the neighborhoods around that for coming out. There was a woman in a stroller happens to be walking by and ask us what are we doing here? And so uh she pitched in as well. And so I want to thank everybody who came out this past Saturday to help clean the Fenture Creek Elementary School area. I also want to invite uh residents to participate in the city of Fresno Civic Academy. This is a great opportunity to learn more about how our city government works and how effectively uh you can engage your council representatives or any members of the people who work here at city hall. And if you are interested in this program, please reach out to the office of community affairs. Again, that's the office of community affairs. And finally, this coming Saturday, uh, February the 28th from 8:00 a.m. to 12, uh, noon, the city will be hosting a tire, uh, Amnesty Day. And, uh, this is at the Hanoi Shopping Center on Cedar and Butler Avenue. The address is 4218 East Butler Avenue. And again, this is from 8:00 a.m. to 12 noon. And this is free recycling to residents of the city of Freso. So, if you have any tires to dispose of, I encourage you to take them to uh the Hanoen Shopping Center on Butler and Cedar this coming Saturday from 8 to noon. That's all I have. Thank you.

All right, District 6, good morning. It is a foggy day in district 6. Uh I want to recap what my colleague from district 4 pointed out. Lug Jen Teals. They did the flowers for our wedding. Jen Fish over there. They're fantastic. Uh quick, reasonably priced, great flowers. Uh congratulations to the PM Lounge who celebrated their grand opening and ribbon cutting. It's fantastic to go take a look at that. Uh this Saturday, for those of you who are physically active or would like to be or like to pretend that you are, this Saturday is the support blue run the 28th at Woodward Park. It's every year. It's put on by the Fresno Police and Fire Chapency. great opportunity to be out there, not just to run or walk or jog, uh, but also to see some really cool public safety vehicles on display out there, whether it's a helicopter, an armored vehicle, anything of that nature. Very cool opportunity. Uh, it's a great time. Encourage you to come join. Secondly, to the residents of district 6, we've got $2.5 million, as confirmed yesterday in a meeting or two days ago in a meeting of our pave more now, pay later money coming to make our intersection at Fry and Shepard safer. Not only was there an accident there over the weekend, there was also an accident there this week. Uh it's very clear that although everything is up to standards, everything was engineered safely, something continues to curse that corner and we are dedicated to making it as safe as it possibly can be and not stopping thinking outside the box until we can reduce the number of collisions there. Uh it is still too high to be acceptable as far as I'm concerned. Next, Veteran Supply Drive, the Central California Veterans Home out there in the uh on the west side. We are generating supplies for them, right? They have a little dry goods store, little commissary in there, a canteen where they can go pick up things like combs and nail clippers and toothbrushes and floss and Q-tips and things like that just to take care of themselves. If you would like to donate any of those

things, we have two donation locations. They're at Sequoia Brewing, both of their spots, both on Champlne and Parin and on Olive Avenue in the Tower District. So, if you'd like to help support our veterans, I would appreciate it. They would appreciate it. This is community giving back to community, especially those who have gone out and put their lives on the line. Um, I also noticed that we didn't have a pet of the month in February. Uh, and I think that's somewhat of a disservice. So, our pet of the month for February, I am arbitrarily uh single-handedly designating Baby Yoda, the dog that was brought in here by the uh former uh city employee, the respected former city employee, Jackie. Baby Yoda is now the uh pet of the month for the rest of February. Not adoptable. He's in a loving home, but he's a pet of the month. Uh and the last thing, it's kind of a tough one. District 6 lost a fantastic constituent this week. Um, for those of you who ever ate his cooking or heard him sing karaoke or were just a stranger in a room he walked into that instantly became no longer a stranger, uh, those of you who knew Luigi Allegra, um, unfortunately, we are we are acknowledging his passing uh, his his immediate and unexpected passing this week. He was also my godfather. Uh, so if you know the family, I would encourage you to reach out to them. Uh, District 6 is a little bit dimmer now uh, with his loss. So, Council President, that's all I had.

Council Vice President, you have the floor.

All right. Thanks, Council President. I have a few different uh congratulations. Um, you know, did want to congratulate all of the uh police department employees uh the employee of the year who received the award. You know, each of these individuals uh represents the the very best of public service in their respective roles, whether it's serving in the field or supporting u operations behind the scenes. you know, their professionalism and commitment to our community do not do not go unnoticed. So, and our our city is stronger and safer because their hard work and and leadership. So, we u we thank them. Um also wanted to to um and I'm not reading all the names. There's different uh awards that have been given out this month, but I did want to thank all of the honores for the uh the state center community college district uh wall of honor honores. uh you know the the the distinction of this award celebrates you know outstanding African-Americans whose uh leadership and service have made a meaningful difference um you know within our community at large and really the same goes for tomorrow's awards that are going to be held by the African-American Museum the Trailblazer Awards want to congratulate all those awardees uh very much uh as well um appreciate uh comments from my colleague Council member Maxwell about the the resolution. We'll look forward to to hearing that and look forward to earning support. I know um there's a few on the dis who have yet to have the privilege of doing school drop off or pickup and uh you'll you'll experience it one day and and you'll you'll you'll understand. Um but you know beyond that obviously the the proof is in the pudding. The the data is very clear. um look forward to taking action today to make our um school neighborhoods just a little bit uh a little bit safer. Uh and speaking of our our schools, um next week is ReadAcross

America Week and so I encourage uh my colleagues, I'll be out there reading at different uh different schools than the district. I encourage my colleagues to do the same. It's it's a fun process. I get to cosplay as a elementary teacher instead of professor. And um it's fun. It's fun to you know interact with the kids and get to teach them a thing or two and just be able there uh to read uh to read with them. Um and speaking of schools again I like to echo the sentiments of uh my two colleagues on other side of the the dis with respect to you know community concerns um about a registered sex offender potentially becoming um a city council member. I think there are obviously a lot of potential issues and pitfalls. Um obviously I think generally we we you know this is this is the United States. It's it is a free country. Um you know people are entitled to do their time and reform. Um but uh there's a lot of a lot of issues with respect to to that potential um occurring. And so I I I echo the sentiment from my colleagues uh that I I would like to see something at least at the municipal level ultimately the state level um that would help prevent this kind of occurrence in the in the future. Uh so if there's something we can do now, obviously that's something I'm definitely open to. Um and uh if the state, you know, can take on this this particular issue, I' I'd love to see that as well, just so that it addresses kind of blanket um blanketwide statewide um and municipalities don't have to take on the issue all on their own. But Council President, that'll uh conclude my remarks.

Thank you so much, Council Vice President. And um a couple of comments. Oh, yes, sir. Council member Richardson,

want to hang in, Chad. Um, I've been working with the city attorney's office, just for the record, to make sure that we're able to continue providing things here at city hall like tours to elementary schools and to have interns in here who are coming in during the summers of their their high school education. Um, city hall is for everybody, but if your presence here means that other people cannot be here, that's unacceptable. And we are working to get legislation passed here at the city level. I've already been working with the city attorney's office to make sure that city hall is not anywhere that no one feels safe. Right? If this is a place where you cannot come in, you cannot bring your family, you cannot feel safe, we're missing the mission. And if one person because of their own choices prevents you or your family from safely being here, taking part in the civic process, celebrating, remembering whatever it is, then this city's not doing its job. So, we're already working with the city attorney's office. I'm very, very excited to hear these comments from my colleagues. Sounds like we're all on the same page. This isn't about one person. It's not about an election. It's not about a race. It's not about politics. This is about keeping city hall a safe, free, participating home for all of the residents of Fresno. So, we're going to make that happen.

Yeah. Thank you, Council Member. Okay. So, uh, a couple things. First of all, I do want to take an opportunity to really thank Derek Franks. Derek Franks has been with the Grizzlies for gosh, how many years, city manager? 20 some years.

19 almost hit 20 years. 20 years. Um, and uh I just want to thank Derek for his passion. He to me was the Grizzlies. So, uh, we're glad he's still going to stay in Fresno. And if he'll give us the opportunity and he'll say yes, we're going to honor him properly here at city hall. But Derek, thank you for your service and for helping uh helping all you all you've done to put downtown on the map and the Grizzlies as well. Uh to uh Saturday is the support blue run. This is an amazing event. It's it's to support our Fresno police and fire chapency. It's their biggest fundraiser of the year. These chaplain provide a lot of important services uh not only to the public but also to firefighters and officers when they face very difficult situations and they want to process that and having that proverbial shoulder to cry on makes a big difference in a safe space. So thank you so much to uh Matt and Vanessa Marcarian and uh all the folks at the chapy. Uh I'll be out um I'll be doing the support blue walk but I will be out and I hope to see my colleagues there. I know council member Richardson's going to be there as well. So, you'll be doing the run though, I think. So, okay, great. And, uh, I do want to give some kudos to public works. Uh, there have been a lot of, uh, while they're working on some big projects in district 2, there have been a lot of smaller projects with the weather improving, curb, gutter, sidewalk repairs, things like that. And, uh, I do get texts from residents. They're very grateful for that. And in the scheme of things, it may not be the biggest priority, but these are important to the people that live in the that live in those neighborhoods, regardless of where you are in the city of Fresno. So just to our crews doing that work and to Scott, Jill, Brian, and everyone else uh out there, thank you for all your work. Uh it it does go appreciated by the public. Uh and then yesterday I was able to attend uh an a summit at Fresno State put on by the Maddie Institute. I want to give them kudos for bringing all these people together. We had a lot of local policy makers there. It was helpful to see. It's really easy to take for granted fresh fruits and vegetables and dairy and all the things that we have that other countries don't have or

other counties and other communities don't have so easily. Um but um being up it it's important to value the people that grow the food and the essential workers that deliver that food to us and work every day uh under very difficult conditions. So, it was a great event. A lot of challenges ahead, but um thank you for all the knowledge from that event and do want to thank my staff for all the ongoing work uh that they have been doing to keep things flowing in the district. And uh thank you all for allowing me to serve. Uh it continues to be an honor. And we're going to move on now to our mayor, Jerry Dyer.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, members of the council. Um I do have several items I want to talk about. Uh one of them is uh the visit that I had last week to Berkeley for the Cal City's uh meeting. Uh and we sent out a trade memo to all of you and something that people may not have been following. There was an effort underway to change the distribution formula on sales tax uh regarding warehouses like we have with uh Amazon, Ulta, Gap and uh there was a movement underway by Cal Cities uh quite frankly to pursue that and it would have been a $16 million loss to the city of Fresno in one year and I'm proud to say that we were able to uh get that movement stopped and so uh it does not appear that they will be moving that forward. forward again. However, there is one uh piece of um that area that they are moving forward with and that is how the distribution formula um occurs on e-commerce outside of the state of California. Currently, that money goes to the the county pool. we get a large percentage of that about 64% and the pursuit is to change that to where it goes to the individual uh city versus the county pool which would be at about a $1 million loss to us. So I'll keep you informed on that. And it was my honor to attend with council member Maxwell yesterday to the airport. As you know we have one of the fastest growing airports in America. 2.7 million passengers passed through this last year in 2025. And uh so with that, we opened up concourse B in December uh with two gates. We're pursuing um an extension of that with an additional two gates uh pending some federal uh money. We're also um although the item was pulled today, we're redoing a runway with uh with concrete. And then there's some

other upgrades that are occurring there, but certainly the restaurants. And I agree with Council Member Maxwell. The addition of Mad Duck and I and Los Amigos really um puts us up at the next level in terms of of airports and uh amenities and we do look forward to opening up Los Amigos in the next couple of months. They did have a construction incident that caused some severe flooding and water damage. Uh today's an exciting day for me because we've been working a lot on uh downtown housing. I've been working with council member Arius and a number of you. We have the opportunity today to move forward on 222 units and uh 174 that will be mixed uh income housing in the south stadium and then 48 units uh in uptown which is market rate. So looking forward to to that item. I had among a meeting with among Americans uh this Saturday uh over the immigration issue. Had about 100 people that were present. Uh again a lot of fear in the community from that. Also attended a uh an event put on by Ron Vance unsung heroes and it celebrated uh members of the military who had served from West Fresno. And then uh the two nights ago I spoke at the Business Journal CEO of the year awards recognizing folks like Scott Shahadi and Matt Dildine and a number of other folks. And then again spoke Friday night at the employee of the year banquet for the the police department at Partardinis. Uh and then lastly, um we're we're moving forward with a 250 year celebration for America and uh we've been having a series of meetings. I know uh Nick Richardson has been a part of those. Council member Richardson um be putting up a thousand flags in in Fresno and a number of other events that

we'll be having downtown. So, as this uh as things develop, uh we'll be um keeping all of you informed. I promise you. And uh we'll be doing much of this, if not all of it, with private money. With that, I'll conclude my remarks. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mayor. Thank you for all your tireless work. City manager, you have the floor.

Uh just a couple quick things. Um Council Member Richardson, we will have two pets for pet of the month in March. We uh we missed it in February. Um although I understand that um Jackie Riyle's pup gets to be designated the unofficial um pet of the month for February. Um very quickly, I'm not going to go into much detail, but uh if people are interested in the latest update on the Arts Council, um on our web page, uh fresno.gov at the top is a red banner that you can click on. And there was an update that was posted on uh the 24th. Um it's very similar to what was um discussed at the P meeting on Monday, but for those who did not tune in um uh all of the information that we have as of current date is, uh posted on our website on that site. That's all I have. Council President,

thank you very much, city manager. Okay. Thank you all for being patient and thank you council members and mayor and city manager for your comments. Uh while before we move on to scheduled hearings and matters, I do want to acknowledge we do have a special meeting. So at this time, I'm going to uh open that special meeting of the city council this morning at 10:30 a.m. That will require like any other meeting, a roll call. So city clerk, whenever you're ready. Thank you. Taking role for the special meeting. Council member Perea, present. Council President Carbassi, present. Council member Arios, Council Member Maxwell, present. Council member Vang, present. Council member Richardson,

here. Council Vice President Esparza, present. All members being present, we have a quorum. Now, that agenda agenda does call for a pledge of allegiance, but we are obviously very patriotic and we've already held our pledge of allegiance. So, we're going to move on to approving the agenda. Uh, is there a motion to approve the special meeting agenda?

Second. There's a motion by council member PA, second by council member Richardson. Any opposition. There being none, that motion is approved. Uh 7 to zero. So we're going to go back to our meeting and scheduled hearings and matters. Remember, both meetings are being held concurrently. So our first item is going to be our 9:10 a.m. hearing to consider an appeal of the approval of the development per permit application number P23-03606. This is in council district 3. Council member, do you council member Arius, do you want a presentation on this item? A very brief one. Thank you.

All right. Good evening, council president, council members. Philip Seagris with the planning and development department. Uh this next item before you is uh consideration of an appeal related to development permit application number P23606 as filed by Brenda Ramirez of Central Valley Engineering on behalf of Mande Kashall. Uh and it pertains to a 2.23 acre parcel located on the south side of West North Avenue between South Clara and uh uh between South Clara Avenue and South Elm Avenue. The project proposes to develop uh a 4,900 foot truck repair facility. It also proposes to include uh truck park commercial truck parking spaces that would accommodate approximately nine uh commercial truck parking spaces. According to the development code, uh the commercial truck repair is permitted with a development permit and the uh commercial truck parking which is considered from a use perspective outdoor storage. That's also permitted in the business park zone district uh provided that it is accessory to and incidental to the primary use uh and that it uh provide is screened from the public view. Uh the project uh was reviewed for compliance with all development standards. It provides a 15- foot landscape setback along North Avenue. Uh a 30-foot uh landscape setback along the west where the property abuts adjacent residential uses. It also includes a 10-ft landscape setback along the east side of the property. Uh and there is no required setback on the south where it abuts uh industrial properties which are located in the county. Uh there's also a 200 ft operational uh buffer for the outdoor storage. Uh and that's a buffer from the adj adjacent residential uses. So the

truck parking and the commercial trucks cannot park within that 200 ft buffer. Uh the project was approved by the development uh director and appealed to the planning commission. Uh the planning commission upheld the director's decision with the condition that sorry I forgot to note that there is an existing singleunit residence that is located on the site. Uh the commission conditioned that the approved the project provided that that single unit residence be converted to an office use. Uh as detailed in the staff report a minor revision to the application was filed and approved which authorized the conversion of that single unit residence to an office. Um and the application uh planning commission's decision was appealed by council member Arius and we're here before the uh city council to consider the appeal.

Thank you. Thank you. You have the floor, sir. Thank you, council president. Um I appreciate the staff presentation. Uh my initial reason for the appeal was there was a difference of opinion between legal counsel and planning that has been since resolved. So that reason for the appeal has gone away. But I did have a question for legal counsel on this. uh development permit. One is um in essence this would be a maintenance facility to do mechanical work on trucks. Correct.

In my experience um when we identify a number of say in this case nine trucks could be there at one time. At times you have tow trucks that come to the location to be able to remove cars or to drop off cars and that tow truck could be considered a 10th truck or an 11th truck. And then what we end up getting is neighborhood complaints that they call code enforcement and code enforcement only has the development permit to to compare it towards and then we end up with potential fines because technically it's above the nine truck um outlined in de development permit and it creates a lot of work in the back end for code enforcement and for everyone else. So my question to legal counsel was, are we allowed in this process to increase that nine to a higher number to allow for that fluctuation to occur and not have to trigger potential fines later for violation of the development permit? Specifically, are we allowed to go from nine trucks to 12 trucks for the purpose of this development permit?

I can whichever one I can maybe answer that. So to provide a little bit of background, when the application was first submitted, they proposed 36 uh commercial truck parking spaces. Um and again, uh commercial truck parking, it's considered outdoor storage. And so that outdoor storage needed to be incidental to the primary use. So the 36 was exceeded what we would consider incidental to the related use. And there was also the 200t separation requirement from the adjacent residential. So, the the applicant revised their site plan and uh showed that showed the location of the commercial truck parking located outside of that and they're proposing they not the engineer, but they could only get nine. Um theoretically, if they could fit 12 provided it's outside of that buffer, yes, that would be permitted. But um going back to your question about the tow truck, because that's not like being stored on site, we wouldn't really consider that as being a 9th, 12th, 13th truck. What about passenger vehicles? Cuz I'm assuming employees will take their vehicles to the business, drop off their vehicle, get on truck, depart. Does the development permit identify any limit on passenger vehicles being on site? Uh not specifically. Um there's a code requirement for minimum number of truck parking spaces associated with the uh um automotive repair use and I believe that's six. Um and that's for the employees uh visitors to the site that are getting their trucks served but also to accommodate the parking for uh the the owner of the property and the owner of the repair business. They also own a few of their own trucks. So yes, it would be anticipated that the drivers of those trucks would be parking on site, but that parking isn't considered outdoor storage in the sense of like outdoor storage for the actual commercial truck parking. So, if we were to get a complaint a year from now from

a resident saying there's more than six vehicles on site, the development permit only calls for six vehicles, would then be on the hook for to provide a citation or would that not be something that we would site them for because it's just parking spots versus number of cars? Are you following my thinking here, coun uh council member? Um, it would depend on the situation. Um, as usual, um, depending on what the complaint is, we always try to work with the property owner to gain compliance. I mean, it wouldn't be an automatic citation. It would probably notice them first and, uh, come up with a solution. But to your point, I mean, if it's in the if it's in there, then we we do have an obligation, um, to enforce.

Yeah. And and I appreciate that. That's why, you know, if you have nine trucks, potential nine drivers, if you do a a day at the business of training all the drivers plus the employees of the company, you're automatically going to be over the number. I don't want to have code chasing down citations when we can simply address it in the development permit out. So, am I allowed to make adjustments to the number of trucks and to put on the record that passenger vehicles are not something that we're going to be limiting? I know six parking stalls, but it doesn't mean that they can't be more there because the property is bigger than what's being paved and the parking lots being created. Correct. Correct.

So, can I do that today or is that should I Yeah. Remove that restriction. Yes. I just want to be clear about I want to go above 9 to 12 in terms of trucks and go from six passenger vehicles to 12 passenger vehicles so that in the future the business knows what the full capacity is, the public knows and so the neighbors and we don't have to exhaust code enforcement time in the back end. Is that simply just making a motion to that effect? Good morning, council. Uh Heather Thomas, deputy city attorney with the city attorney's office. Yes. Uh you can modify the development permit provided that it complies with the other requirements of the development code.

Got it. Thank you. Well, with that, council president, I'll make a mo motion to approve the item with the modification that the truck number would be 12 and the passenger vehicle number would be 12 instead of six and nine. I'll second that. Thank you.

Yeah. Okay. So, I do apologize. We're going to come back to that because we go to public comment. I'm I'm sorry. Any other council members? I think Council Richardson's punched up on this one. Yes. Uh, Phil, not quite done. Sorry. Yes. So, if you could kind of expand my understanding here a little bit about the commercial vehicles. Uh, most of the times we see commercial trucks, it's not only the hauling entity, uh, but also the the cargo on the back. Are there limitations? One, are there limitations on cargo or cargo storage? I'd imagine most of the times they're towed. There's nothing on the back of it, right? That's part of the delivery job. But secondarily, does this limit include the vehicles that are stored inside the facility? If they bring in the the actual rig itself inside to do some sort of transmission or engine maintenance, uh does that is that factor into the total?

Yes, that would factor into the total. Okay. So, there's a potential someone could drive by and see four outside and the rest could all be parked inside the buildings but still be adding to that total. So, the the truck parking, they would all the truck parking would be going occurring outside. Uh there's three service bays for the actual truck repair. So uh those trucks that are need to be worked on and and stay overnight, those would be parked indoors. Uh but the truck parking right now um as approved by the planning commission, the director, it would be nine. Sounds like council wants to potentially allow that to 12, but that would be for the actual commercial truck parking of the um business owners trucks.

Okay. Thank you. And my my last question is for my colleague uh the council member responsible for that area. Um being that this is your district. This is you know we will defer to your um to your desires for this area to your understanding of the neighborhood. What is what is the idea for this area? What's what's the goal? What's the plan? What what should this look like? What's this bringing? If you don't mind just educating the rest of us a little bit.

Sure. It's basically a 2.3 acre parcel that's currently like used to be a real residential. There's a house on it. Um the owners have a trucking business. They want to be able to do maintenance on site. So they've gone through the process to get a permit to do that. The early consider concerns from the neighborhood was to have a residential house in the middle of a commercial um maintenance facility. So the um applicants went ahead and made that modification to convert that house to an actual office space. So it full fully converts a parcel to business use. Um and we also put limitations on they can't store large quantities of oil of hazardous materials, things of that nature. So um this is the final part of it is the amount of trucks um that would be allowed. The business currently owns nine trucks, so technically it meets their requirements. um and their parking spots were six. But my concern was on a day-to-day basis that number fluctuates and I don't want code enforcement having to go out there for one vehicle that's extra when there's just a temporary fluctuation.

Is the residence currently occupied? No, not that I believe. To my knowledge, no. I'd have to defer to the uh property owner, which I'm not too sure if they are in attendance, but I believe the applicants might be. At least that was disclosed at planning commission that it currently is not occupied.

I think it's a vacant home. Okay. The reason I bring this up is one block to the east. I know we've had concerns with um commercial truck traffic and things like that that I've heard, but I am not the area expert over there. Uh so I just wanted to kind of get some elucidation from you to figure out if that's going to bring more, you know, commercial vehicle traffic to the area. If it's not, if that's part of the plan, just kind of what direction you're looking to go here. Yeah, it's just uh maintaining the existing traffic that it is to maintain the trucks that already exist there.

With that, council president, I've been informed by legal counsel I have to change my motion when we're ready or we'll go to public comment. If there's no other council members punched up and then we'll do that. Thank you, council member. Okay. So, regarding the 9:10 a.m. hearing, if there's any members of the public wishing to comment, you will have 3 minutes. This is your time. Last call for any public comment on the 9:10 a.m. hearing. There being none, we're going to close public comment. I'm going to close the hearing and bring it back to the Oh, okay. So, is this for um what is it? The special meeting. Okay. It has nothing to do with that.

Well, as we mention, whenever we hear an item, we do say what item it is. This is the 9:10 a.m. hearing. It's about the fourth time I've said that. The 9:10 a.m. hearing. So, okay. It's on the agenda right here. Should I wait till later? speak on that. So, if you have any comments on the 9:10 a.m. hearing, this is the time for that. If your comments are not related to that, you'd wait till the appropriate time. So, for the special meeting, should I make the comment right now? We are not hearing the special meeting item at this time. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, yes, sir. Oh, yes. Come on forward, sir.

This is regarding what the Sorry, my name is Nick Sur. Good morning, mayor and council members. Um I'm the project manager on this project that we've been discussing on it on behalf of the uh clients here and uh I just want to mention few items that we discussed here. We have been working on this project approximately four years and during that times we have gone through numerous meetings with the planning staff and I participated in the full development review committee process address the comments for all the reviewing departments and appeared before the Fresno planning commissions on December 17 and where the project was approved and this property is a zoned business park a small truck repair facility is allowed or uh under the zoning designations. before purchasing the 2.23 acres by my clients and we verify with the city that um this business uh well can be operated from here and um u over the past four years we have worked in a good faith with the city staff and neighbors and we reduced the size of the project by nearly half. We revised the design more than a 10 times and we have enhanced the buffering along the west side 30 ft and the north 15 ft landscaping and we added incorporated that trees and screening along with the frontage of the improve capability with the uh surrounding properties and every department concern were addressed prior to the approval and regarding the asex from the rear that was the one of the questions by the neighbor is impossible that's that never owns those properties onto the south and we cannot allow that and uh this project is compiles with the zone uh complies with the zoning and it complies with the general plan. It complies with all the applicable development standards. The planning commission's carefully review

the conditions of approval and determine that project has conditions is appropriate for this uh location and uh uh we are agreed owner is here on this project and uh Mr. Aries um uh limitation on it. We are we are we are agree with it and also with Mr. uh Richardson uh regarding the comment there's nobody live on the properties. And uh lastly um I just want to mention that um this project will uh activate a vacant parcels and create a local job, generate economy activity and contribute to the city's tax bases. The city promotes economic development and business growth. this project align with those objectives and um again the appeal filed by the council vice president Miguel Aras and asked this Fresno city councils to reess the impact respectfully the evaluation has already uh when complied completed through the requiring planning process we are not asking for the variance we are asking for a special uh not a special treatment

thank you sir that is your time appreciate it okay So, last call. Is there anybody else that wants to comment on the 9:10 a.m. hearing? Okay. Not seeing anybody. I'm going to close public comment. Bring it back to the council. Council member Arius, you have the floor. You've already had your opportunity. Please, you can go ahead and sit down. When we come back to the next item you want to talk about, you can talk then. Thank you.

Thank you, council president. And I just want to provide a little bit of clarity um from the body and for the public. When this project initially came forward, although the zoning was business park, which allows this kind of business, the applicant wanted to also have residential on the same parcel, which is a conflicting use. That's why it went through the development permit process, appeals process, plan commission. Since then, they've agreed to make the whole parcel business um instead of mixing the two uses. With that, um, I'll make a motion to deny the appeal as well as to approve the development permit with the following modification that the truck lots would go from 9 to 12 and the um, passenger vehicles would go from 6 to 12.

Second. Okay, there's been a motion. There's been a second. Any further discussion? Not seeing any. As a reminder, we've already taken public comment on this item. Any opposition? There being none, council member, your motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Okay, we're going to move on to our 9:15 a.m. TERA hearing to consider financing of the acquisition, development, construction, furnishing, and equipping of a student housing facility and related working capital. Uh, are there any council members that wish to have a presentation on this item? I'm not seeing any at this time. So, uh, are there any questions by the council on this item? Council was raising my hand.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see that. Yep. Okay. We will have a staff presentation. Come on forward, Centino. Thank you, sir.

Good morning, council. I'll provide a just a brief overview of the process of why we're here today. Today's TERA hearing is uh for the request of uh the uh developer to issue $80 million in taxexempt financing um being issued by the California Public Financing Authority for the acquisition, development, construction of a student h housing facility um and related working capital construction costs. The property to be located uh on 75 acres at 8:15, 829, and 835 South Fulton Street in Council District 3. Uh the developer here is here in attendance. The purpose for uh the hearing really is for the the public to have an opportunity to weigh in on the financing. Um just as a reminder, I know the council is well well aware, but for the uh the general public's uh information, the uh approval of this item does not affect the city's uh bonding capacity or debt in any manner. This is uh just an opportunity to provide public input on this developer's um request to issue taxexempt financing. Great. Thank you, sir. So, at this time, we'll go to council member questions. Council member Richardson.

Santino, just real quick, if you don't mind, when it says student housing, um, I would expect this to be somewhere in the vicinity of a school. So, can you just speak a little bit to the restrictions or the requirements for someone applying to live in the student housing? Um, I'll ask Phil Sky to help address those questions in terms of the project. Thanks.

Good morning. Phil Sky, assistant director, plan development department. Um, so this is uh student housing is a misnomer uh as it relates to this project. Uh this morning you have a special meeting to discuss the development disposition agreement which is speaking to this very project speaks to the unit mix, the unit composition. It is a mixed income uh development project. Uh Mayor Dyer spoke to that earlier this morning in his comments. Um that is that is what this project is. It's mixed income. It's a mixed income project. Okay. And so I know that originally and I think as it still stands, I believe the developer, one of the the sort of target demographics that they are intending to sort of rent to or market the project to will be um community college and four-year uh students. Uh this developer believes that there is a market for that. Um but it is a mixed income development. I'm I'm more than happy to have some comment by the mayor too if you if you'd like, but um I'm just curious is if student housing is the type of housing, if that's a a designator for the type or it's actually a targeted demographic and again the proximity to the school just I don't want to feel like, you know, we're presenting something to the public that says student because who wouldn't say no to that, right?

Sure. I Yeah. Council member, I want to make sure that when you think student, I want you to think college age. I do not want you to. So, school district is not relevant in terms of proximity to the location. This is college age.

Let me give a little bit of background. Um, when when we first started working with the developers on this project, we were going to partner with State Center Community College uh to receive $25 million, I believe, of funding towards this project. uh they ultimately ended up doing a RFP and uh this site was not selected nor were these developers. Uh the site selected was uh up by Fresno City College. So um the student housing designation kind of stems over carries over from that if you will. Uh but this is a much different um project. It's 174 units and when we have the special meeting I can talk about the breakdown of that in terms of 70 those 70 those units will be based on uh AMI area median income and uh 104 will be market rate. Um so we can we can chat about that when we hear the item.

And council mayor this item in particular that you're hearing at this moment uh is the TER hearing as presented by our city controller. This is really about um um allowing the finance agency to be able to issue the bonds uh to which is a significant part of the financing of this project and no risk to the city. Correct. City manager, do you have something?

If council president, if I just may add some clarity, there's recent change in state law that um requires us to no longer just dedicate student housing as student housing, but individual housing. Um, so this item also replaces all the verbiage to align with state law which is designated as individual housing for people who may be students but not a definition of a student. Okay. I I would make a motion council president uh regarding this item that provided this this is actionable this is for adoption correct or approving the issuance.

No, we'll I'll come back to you if you want. We'll we'll do a public comment. Usually we do public comment and but if you want to do it, we'll just come back to it. If you want to state it for the record now, that's fine. Okay. Um I would be in favor of moving to approve the issuance of the funds. However, under the condition that we strike any reference calling this a student housing facility like on page one in the executive summary on page two as well. I think that's only fair and it's only transparent that we call it exactly what it is. Let let me do this if you wouldn't mind because this is in district three. Would you mind when we come back to this if council member Aries makes the motion and then you would second that? Absolutely. If you would make that condition.

I I am fine with it but I do want to make sure the legal counsel and the redevelopment agency confirms before we you know strike anything out from the dis because there are some very significant legal implications. We got to make sure that we're okay. I think we can do that while we go to public comment. Yeah. Okay. Any other council members punched? Uh I have uh mayor. Okay. Okay. And with that, this is the uh 9:15 a.m. TERA hearing. If any members of the public wish to provide comment on the 9:15 a.m. TERA hearing, you'll have 3 minutes. Please go ahead. This is a special meeting, right? This part.

No, this is if if so, if you look on the agenda, we're still on the regular meeting agenda. This is the 9:15 a.m. hearing item. This is not the special meeting, but I will state when we get to the special meeting. We're still a little ways from that.

Okay. So, is this this is taking action probably and maybe this is putting one thing before the other because is this making a commitment to these people giving them some type of tax credit? Have you even approved the project yet? I think it's it was put on um the agenda yesterday and also this been in the works for like how many years? Like over 13 years and as it was stated a few months ago that they would have until and and now it's been extended their time. So, I think you should allow the public or um other people in the council just to like this shouldn't be voted on right now. Give it more time because it just got put up yesterday. It's 100 something pages and I don't know if we're making special um whatever for these people, but um they could wait. This is like probably serious money and there's probably legal implications and there's just like a lot more to it. So instead of just passing off this whatever they want because they're here, um you might want to look into it more.

Okay. Uh just for Thank you so much. Just for clarification for the public, this item was not put on the agenda yesterday. The 9:15 a.m. hearing item has been on the agenda since it was first published. All supporting documentation is available to the public. I always recommend folks if they want to comment on an issue, please read the items just like we do. That way you're better informed and when you come forward to the council, we can take your comments uh as they come in. So, with that, um, any more members of the public, you'll have three minutes to comment. Dez, you have the floor. Um, yeah, I just I think she's talking about the special meeting. You You keep on saying you had a special meeting this morning. Yeah. So, there is a We don't start my time yet. I'm just asking a question. There's a special meeting does. There was this morning or

There will be. Okay. It's open now, but we haven't heard the item yet.

Okay. All right. Speaking on the 9:15, um, I believe there needs to be multiple community meetings for D3. I think not having meetings is the biggest thing that people keep on saying about D3. We need to have community meetings where a lot of the people in the community um you want to build it said 160 in the contract. I don't see anywhere in there where it says anything about a covenant. You want to claim affordable housing once again and it's not affordable housing. 50% affordable housing means that you have to make $35,000 a year. And that's not for anybody that's an intern here at Fresno City Hall make a minimum wage. Your interns won't even be able to afford this place. Student housing. Why are you going to put something away from city colleges so far away when transportation sucks? Who's who wants to ride the bus for an hour and a half to two hours just to get to Fresno State or Fresno City? Um, also I believe that if you're friends and having dinner with the developers, it looks a little funny and I don't think our mayor should be allowed to speak on this. I just want to put that out there. Um, also we're in a housing crisis. Uh 32 units at at 50% is a bunch of BS. Um 32 units at 80% is a bunch of BS. There's nobody. Who's going to be in there? It's not going to be us. You guys are two blocks from what the mayor of Fresno says, the most credible nonprofit homeless organization that he supports are two blocks from this vicinity. But yet you don't have anything over there for 30% or below to combat homelessness in that area. Also, you have three addresses. Which three addresses? So, where's the money coming from? Also, you have ParkPlace LLC out of Fresno, California. We have developers here to do this. You also have Ascent nonprofit organization attached to this. All the contracts, all the amendments, everything you guys have, the paperwork is very confusing. I really think we need to stop allowing the mayor to give his friends developers allegedly out of

town um any of these projects. We have affordable housing developers here in Fresno we need to utilize. We have nonprofit organizations here in Fresno. We have a lot of LLC's here in Fresno we need to utilize our own people for our own projects. $80 million. $80 million. When did this even get on the I mean, come on. Nobody even knows about this. Where's the meetings, public good meetings? Where's the transportation? Where's the squa? Where's all that stuff and affordable housing tax credit? Are we going to give tax credit for 32 units? Boohoo. For who? For who? Not for me. Not for fixed income, and surely not for the people two blocks away from the mayors of very well-known, very credible homeless organizations. I mean, is this smart? Is this smart? Like, what are you going to do with us? Seriously, what are you going to do with us? You guys have poured $700 million into homelessness here in Fresno, California. What are you going to do with us? We're two blocks. I don't like funding your friends.

Thank you so much, Dez, and thank you for your comments. Uh, anyone else for public comment? And while we wait for other folks, just to clarify, the staff report does specify that 70 of the units have a 55-year affordable covenant. So, there is a covenant in there. And the developer in question is a local developer who has developed a lot uh in my district as well and has been a big supporter of Pinedale uh as he's developed those areas. Just to clarify for the record. Um anyone else wishing to comment on the 9:15 a.m. hearing? This will be your opportunity. Okay. There being none, we're going to bring it back to the council. I'm going to go to Council Member Arius. Uh, council president, I just want for the record to include um and clarify that the actual agreement does not have any reference to students. It was just the staff report that ended up carrying some language from the old uh proposal. So, just to reassure the council member, the agreement itself is very clear. It's not student centric. It's individual housing for those who are eligible based on income and the market. Um, with that, I'll make a motion to approve the item. Uh there's been a motion by council member Arius. There's been a second by council member um Brea. Any further discussion from the council? Okay. Any any opposition? Opposed? Okay. Uh the item passes 6 to one. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. So that was the 9:15 a.m. hearing. At this time, we're going to go back to our special meeting. So, this is the time for the special meeting where we'll take comment and uh give me one moment to pull this agenda. I got it. So, this is ID26-272 and approve an amended and restated disposition and development agreement between the city of Fresno. Uh and uh at this time, what we're going to do is uh there is no staff presentation, but are there any

questions from the council on this item for the special meeting? Mayor I'm going to ask you to please keep it down. You're welcome to speak at your a lot of time, but you have to respect the process for everyone else here. Thank you.

Yeah. I I want to give an overview if I could of what this is. And this is really part of our overall downtown revitalization effort. I think all of you uh are aware of the fact that for many many years we've been trying to bring housing to downtown Fresno, but it's been met with uh a lot of challenges. And part of that is is that many of these projects uh do not pencil do are not profitable. Uh that's the purpose for us seeking out $250 million from the state uh to be able to put in uh infrastructure like parking, water main, sewer mains along with 43.7 million. uh and uh this particular three lots that we're speaking of uh they've been vacant for decades with any in inability to develop them. There have been some efforts uh over the years to try to do that. None of those have come to fruition. And so what we're hoping to do, this council uh provided a uh DDNA here some time ago for the developer and that expired um today or the 28th. And uh what we're hoping for in our meetings with the developer is to extend that DDNA to April, I'm sorry, May 15th. That's going to allow them to go to the bond market. Uh, I also want to share this is um an $82 million investment in downtown Fresno for $174 units. Uh, 70 of those units will be affordable with a 55-year covenant and that is anywhere from 50% to 80% AMI. The other 104 will be market rate units and um the investment of 82 million uh as you know in order to incentivize folks developing downtown uh we created a revolving loan fund. That revolving loan fund is uh up

to $8 million in this case $8 million for a 5-year loan which is variable at 4.81% today. and it will um have a balloon payment at the end of excuse me 5 years. Uh there's also a loan from our housing uh department dollars that are intended for this uh that will be at 7 uh 3,727,000 and I do want to mention that 727,000 of that is coming from the developer for the purchase of the land. So, um, that's kind of in a in a an overview of what we're trying to do. We have been working with this developer on for the last couple of years trying to get this developed. I want to thank Council Member Arius for his effort on this. He's been a part of every meeting. Marlene Murphy, thank you for this. And Phil Sky uh, for all the um, challenges that we've had to overcome to get to this point. But this will be the first truly legitimate housing project in the South Stadium area and I'm encouraging council to support it.

Thank you so much, Mayor. At this time, we're going to go to Council Member Aras.

Thank you, Council President. to the mayor's comments. In my seven years on this body, we've been successful in opening up permanent housing and Marquarade housing, both affordable and marade, in every neighborhood in my district, West Fresno, Tower District, Central Unified, um, Chinatown, and even downtown. Downtown has been the least successful and the most difficult over my tenure for an array of reasons. a lot of which is old historical buildings that cost quite a bit of money and time to improve. Um, for example, Hotel Fresno was 5 years in the process after being shut down for 40 years. But um, it's also a a point of um um that we've gotten to in the city where we finally have aligned all the stars. Um, the state has given us a massive investment, allowing us to rebuild all the underground infrastructure, saving developers a lot of money from having to upgrade our own sewer lines and water lines are 100 years old. They've also given us the ability to build parking garages. Again, one more cost that doesn't have to be borne by developers who then have to um transition that cost to renters in the form of higher rents. Um so now that we've have funded underground infrastructure, parking infrastructure, um streamlined the process, made it by right, the last component was providing some gap financing for several of these projects that have all gone through the process for years to get shovel ready. Uh you'll see in these projects um some of them are bare land that the folks have taken the um invested in the demolition, the cleanup, the mitigation of these properties. Others are historical buildings that developers have gutted completely um asbestos

cleared, led cleared, gotten ready for construction. and then others are a combination of city property, redevelopment property, all all combined. Um, so it's been a really heavy lift and I look forward um to ribbon cutting and finally getting to a point of construction on several projects all within the downtown core and demonstrating for the public that when we said we want you to live, work, and play here, we're making it a possibility to actually live here. Um, so I appreciate the mayor's patience and his commitment to seeing it through. And I also want to be very clear, some of these projects may not come to fruition. And we've been very thoughtful of putting the language in that our money is last in. And if they don't begin construction, the taxpayers would not lose out a penny in any of the public commitment of gap financing. So I think that's also important. It puts a pressure on developers to actually secure their private financing, which is the vast majority of the cost for these projects, and um get to construction. Um they are all shovel ready. They're ready to break ground once they secure the final uh portion of financing and money, which I anticipate all of them are well positioned to do uh this year. If I if I might add, um, for those of you not familiar with where this particular property is by the address, it is right, um, in the outfield, I guess it would be the center field, left field, uh, center right field, I guess it would be. Um, and this this development will be eight stories, uh, overlooking the stadium. And I think it's going to be a catalyst for future housing to come downtown. And it's going to be beautiful. left field, right? Uh so it's going to be a beautiful development. I look forward to uh seeing the groundbreaking soon. It is it is as close to shovel ready as possible. So

thank you. Great. Thank you so much. So any other council members wishing to comment on the special meeting item? And as a reminder, there will be two votes on this item. We're going to go to public comment. Dez, you will have the floor. Special meeting. The special meeting. Yes. Go ahead. Okay. Come on forward. Thank you. and then Dez. Thanks, Dez.

Thank you, Councilman, and thank you to our mayor and my council. Um, I agree with the lady about this housing. We have a lot of housing, but we don't have no retail down there. So, what's the need of having housing? You don't have no place to shop. But what I R to say, we were in a meeting on yesterday evening with our Councilman Miguel Aras and he also stated that um our area where they want to revamp um California Ple and Martin Luther King. They were stated that there's been many accidents on that corner. the reason they wanted to re reszone that. I would just like to ask the council if they would go back and re resamp that number of accidents of 23 accidents and a number of 20 uh or 10 years 23 accidents. I live in that area and I uh can't recollect so many accidents on that particular that particular corner and plus in southwest Fresno we have very limited accident auto accidents. So if you're getting it from the news I'm not sure how you getting it. our our news if you rec know when they when they announce something if they say Southwest Fresno they'll say Ashlin and 99 they they include anything in Southwest Fresno when it come down to something that's u negative a negative thing they'll it it's always southwest Fresno if it's

negative so I'm just asking if someone if it's possible to go back and recount that and see what really that the real count is. I don't think it's 23. So it that's what that's what my concern is. Would you please do that? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Dez, you still have a minute. Yeah, you still have some time. Go ahead. Okay. My name is Hester Hensley. I'm sorry. No, that's fine, Miss Henley. My name is Hester Hensley. I'm a concerned citizen of Southwest Fresno and I attend as many meetings as I can and uh I I will continue fighting for Southwest Fresno. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay. So, you said it's on the special meeting, correct? This is the special meeting. Yep.

Okay. So, I wanted to speak up on the um what is it called? The reoccurring loan fund. Um, I noticed that on there you guys had cuz Dyer spoke on all the special meeting, right? So, I'm going to speak on everything that he spoke on the reoccurring loan fund and stuff that's going to go. We have a reoccurring loan fund and I understand the process of the reoccurring loan fund, but we're also going to be utilizing the reo reoccurring loan fund for um I don't think it's right that George Anne is sitting in on this because the reoccurring loan fund is being given to her ex- boss that she was working at prior to coming back to the city of Fresno. So, I just want to put it on record that I don't think it's fair. Just to be clear, you got to direct your comments to me, Dez. No, I am directing them to you. Okay.

I am.

But you're gesturing. I don't think it's right that she sits up there in the dascese when we're talking about uh her boss getting you know these these grants or these loans or reoccurring loans or bonds or anything like that. I feel it's a conflict of interest because in the future she is taken care of guaranteed when you live out there in the housing and you work for a boss like that that's a developer. I feel it's a conflict of interest and I want to put it on record. Um, and the reoccurring loan funds. I know that we're giving $8 million to Lance Cash in for above market rate units. That's crazy in downtown area. And then we're giving $11 million revolving uh loan funds. Uh we're giving 11 million to another individual assent for the three locations on Fulton. We have three locations. Nobody separated the locations yet. And then it says city funds. you're given 8 million which is the limit um to uh this company for the Fulton. Then you're given another 3 million and it just says city funds out of where out of the revolving loan fund uh because of the 8 million is the limit. So where are the other $3 million that we're taking out of city funds to give for this project? We're not separating addresses. We're giving reoccurring reevolving loan funds to people that are our ex- boss. And I really truly feel there's a conflict. I would like to know if the city attorney would look into if this is a a a conflict for her to be speaking up or being present when her ex- boss is receiving millions and millions of dollars. Um we I understand it, but if we're going to do affordable housing, then we need to do affordable housing.

There's no conflict. Okay. Thank you. I still feel it is personally. But anyways, the uh affordable housing that is being mentioned for these projects, they're really not affordable cuz like I said, the intern that works for you cannot afford this unit that they're claiming might be student, but now we have to change the language to fit the criteria of the state. I mean, I hearing you guys trying to squeeze in housing, you know, like let's fit the language. Let's fit the language is all I'm hearing. We need to fit our people inside. We have zero zero units.

Thank you, Dez. And we did receive your letter uh on this item. U you mentioned some of the items from your letter. And thank you. Thank you, city at It was given to all the council. It's on the record. And thank you, city attorney, for chiming in. Just to be clear, when any item comes before the council, it has to be uh reviewed by the uh city attorney's office, and there is no conflict. Just to be very clear on the record. So, we're going to move on to further public comments. Anyone else? This is your opportunity. You'll have three minutes. Please do come forward for the special meeting. Okay. For the special meeting, yes. Um, do they always run concurrently if they're on the same day? A lot of times you close up the first meeting maybe and then start the special meeting. You're running into your three minutes.

I know I am, but you probably wouldn't answer. But, um, this is probably going to maybe pass anyway. And even though I'm not really sure if it's like legal the way you did it, asking for um tax credits before you even pass the whole thing. So, um and it might take me a while to learn all this stuff, but when I do um because um those of you who are benefiting like in nefarious ways, that's already done. But I will continue to be part of some and to learn. Nelson soon is that you?

Yeah. So, um to learn what I need to and takes time to um so that way because people in the future um if they don't feel like there's any um body paying attention and allows them to do these things that are probably not even legal because nobody up here is probably a lawyer except him. And so that's pretty ridiculous. He has um are able to spend this money like your granddaddy left it to you and it's not your money. It's not. That would be really nice. Oh, here's an idea over here. And here's another one. Oh, and this one didn't work out over here, but hey, it. It's not our money, huh? So, when I do know what I got to know, I guess, or get a little educated and more people stuff's going to happen. And don't think that um maybe whether you choose to stay in Fresno or move somewhere else um as far as let me see social media or the way things work or advance and just time goes really is that it's going to follow you. Your legacy is going to follow you wherever you go. So don't think you're going to go somewhere else and it's not cuz your kids will be reminded, I'm sure. So don't forget. Okay. Anyone else from the public wishing to comment on this item? Miss Hensley, unfortunately, you've had your three minutes on this item. Um,

there was one other thing. I apologize. I have to be consistent.

So you we don't do that. We don't yield time. I apologize, but there will be another opportunity to comment on other items and unscheduled communication and then consent calendar coming up. But on this item, unfortunately, your time has expired, but I want to thank you for being patient with us. Any other folks wishing to comment? Again, this is for the special meeting item this morning. Okay. So, I'm going to close that portion. We're going to come back to the council. Are there is there any discussion, questions? I do have the mayor punched up. Thank you, Council President. I I know we generally don't respond to public comment, but in this instance, um I think uh one of the speakers tried to impugn the reputation of my city manager.

I don't think anyone takes it seriously though. But but it's but fair enough. So So I I think I I just want to say that this employee, my city manager, has worked for the city of Fresno for 25 years with incredible integrity and work ethic. She was a not an employee of the developer in question. She was a consultant and provided advice and by the way that same developer had the foundation and that foundation is what funded we are not invisible your organization Dez so thank you okay Dez Dez I Dez Dez Dez I'm going to give you a warning Dez

Dez you had your three minutes you don't have to leave I've given you a warning Walk myself out. You don't have to leave. No, I'm going to walk out cuz I'm going to keep talking. All right. Okay. I'm going to walk myself out cuz he's a little Dez. Dez, you don't have to leave. I'm going to leave because I Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. We're going to move on. Is there anyone else? Well, actually, I'm sorry. We've concluded public comment back to the council. So, there are Okay, Dez, you told me.

Okay. I'm going to call a two-minute recess. Thank you. That's what you said. made a motion. Mayor, you want to second that motion?

Second. Okay. So, this is a vote with the full council and the mayor. Uh, is there any opposition to the motion? There being none, it passes 8 to zero. There'll be a second motion. This is council only. Any council members wishing to make a motion?

Moved by council member Maxwell. I will second that. Okay. Sorry. Council vice president seconds that motion. Any opposition? There being none, it passes 7 to zero. Thank you all for your patience. That concludes the special meeting. So, I'll adjourn the special meeting, but we're not leaving yet. We still have the regular meeting. I'll adjourn the special meeting at 11:24 a.m. Now, we're going to go back and resume the meeting. We're on the consent calendar. Do any council members wish to register a no vote, abstension, or recusal on any consent item. And as a reminder, pulled items will be heard immediately after consent. We have two two pulled items. Not seeing anyone punched up. Okay, we're going to move on to public comment now and all consent, contested consent as well as closed session items. We're also going to add unscheduled communication at this time. So, anyone wishing to comment on consent, contested consent and close session items, come forward. Charlie, I do have a card from you. If you want to come forward, sir, this will be your time. And while you come up, I just want to let you know you have a strong advocate in our city attorney. He gave me your story. You are a very resilient man. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much, sir. Uh, all of you up here, I've been here. I'm Charlie Roberts. I'm the president of the Clovis Lions Club. I've been the president for 26 years. I've worked in the public. I'm still strong in working in the public uh in general by itself between Fresno and Clovis in general by itself. But the reason why I'm here is it's it's it's a simple hopefully something will be fixed. And the reason why I'm here is I've been here three times plus information sent in about our sidewalks over where I live at over on Shields and uh Palm area.

I'm a little upset because I have three elderly people that lived on our block and I've asked this city council and the person that represents our area, which have switched so far three times, that our sidewalks get fixed because they're broken, they're lifted. I've had them come up. I had them send one of their people out to talk to me and said, "We'll take a look at it." 15 years later, we had one lady left that's 90 years old that used to work for the city of Fresno that lived on our block that now has to live in a comolescent home because she broke her hip. So now you guys get to live with this because we lost a good person on our block because she can no longer live in her home because you guys wouldn't fix our sidewalk. All you did was patch it. Patch it. Patch it. Patch it. You never fix the lifts on our block which were high. I sent you the pictures. I talked to the guy that came out and measured it. I talked to the the other person that came out and did um they evaluated it. The answer was, "We're going to come back out. We're going to come back out. We're going to come back out." Now, her house sits empty because she can't live in her own home. the other two ladies that worked um that lived there also pretty much the same thing because they

couldn't walk down their street because we took care of them on our street. We took care we took care of the elderly on our block to help them get around instead of walking the street. We made sure that when they came out we were going to walk with them so they wouldn't fall down anymore. You know, I've I've talked to to Janna about this. Charlie, I apologize. We've heard you. Thank you for you. The three minutes are expired when we did get your information. Thank you. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you.

Yeah, here's his card. And then next, I have Jerry. I hope I pronounced it correctly. Jerry, you'll have three minutes. How you doing? Morning. Uh Tuesday 17th, uh February 2026, 6:11 a.m. Uh my bike fell off the bike rack. Uh failure of the bike rack. U dealt with several times. Those things will Yeah, whatever. It's old. uh effective August 11 to 12 uh 2025 uh fax is not responsible for any damages while the bike is on the rack. So that's my argument. Uh I want my bike replaced. It's Yeah, that's the argument. Simple. Because they feel they're not responsible. If I put it on there and it falls off, I'm asked out. But I want you guys to replace it. That's it. We straight. We good? You heard me?

We've heard you, sir. Yep. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Okay. Uh, anyone else from the public wishing to comment on consent, contested consent, close session or unscheduled communication? Miss Hensley, you'll have three minutes. It's blank. Thank you, Councilman. I uh the thing that I forgot earlier is that we in Southwest Fresno feel out just feel deleted because when they talked about doing things in Southwest Fresno, they go get monies from the state before they come and find out from us what we need or what we want in our community. And it's unfair to us that you go and get money, lots of money, and then come to us after you after the fact. I think we should be included in the process of uh going to get monies from the state. We should be able to have some type of input on that. If you understand what I'm saying, we should in southwest Fresno, we shouldn't have to be excluded from things like that. in in the past, we have not just come and and asked because you come and you say, "Well, we're going to do this, we're going to do that." But you've already gotten the money to do it and then you say that um we have to use this money in in a month's time because the time have run out. Well, if you found this out back in 2006 and then in 2019 it was approved, you see where Southwest Fresno feel like they left out. And then all of a sudden

is that you only have a month. We have a month to up to consider this. That's not fair to us. So we just ask to be treated like everyone else in this town. We then we'll feel like we're one Fresno. Well, we don't feel like we're one Fresno when we've been left out of so many things. So, just include us before you go get the money and let us know. Thank you. You have another minute if you want to keep talking. Yeah. No, thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Mley. Appreciate it. Again, this is last call for anyone wanting to speak on consent, contested consent, close session, or unscheduled communication. Not seeing anybody come up. Okay, we're going to close public comment at that time. Again, this is the consent calendar. Is there a motion to approve the balance of the consent calendar? So, move by council member Arius. Is there a second? Oh, second by council member Vang. Any opposition? There being none, the balance of the consent calendar passes six to zero with one absence. Thank you very much. We're going to move on to contest the consent. Council Vice President, would you mind leading us for the rema for the these two items? Thank you.

Sure thing. Um, we've got two contested consent items, two N2T, both pulled by Council Member Richardson. If you're listening, I'll give you 30 seconds. Go on once, go on twice. There you are. Come on down. We'll start with two end. Apologize for that. My Roomba got stuck again. Okay. Uh, assistant director, if you wouldn't mind, just for myself and for the public, can you give us a very broken down explanation of the revolving loan fund, how it works, uh, with this specific item? I believe we're on to November, right? That's correct.

Yes. How it works, who applies for it, where that process starts, and, uh, and kind of how that looks operating as a city.

Sure. Happy to do it. Phil Sky, assistant, director of our plan development department. Council Richardson, I'm just going to repeat some of what mayor shared earlier as it relates to the structure of the revolving loan fund. Uh the revolving loan fund um is our are our dollars that we've made available uh to the public uh for qualifying projects that are underwritten uh in the downtown and Chinatown areas. Uh those dollars are made available uh through a notice of funding availability. um we as staff have the ability to issue multiple notices of funding availability for as long as funds are available or whenever they are available because it's a revolving loan fund. So um we have um currently um this particular project responded to a most recent NOA that we published. Uh the terms of the NA or of those funds are in the NA um high level. They are uh funds that uh are made available up to $8 million in uh dollars that we would lend out to the project, the qualifying project uh for a maximum period of 5 years, at which point those dollars must be fully repaid at an interest rate. It's a variable interest rate that currently is marked at 4.81%. And these projects have to be in the downtown Chinatown area. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. And then who who would start a process to apply for this to apply the funds to it to register someone as a potential recipient of these funds?

Sure. So we actually have a notice of funding available availability that is currently published that any qualifying project could respond to. Um it would be a developer typically that would be the one responding uh provide all the information that we request through our NOA. And then last question those monies where exactly are they? What what monies are they? Are they state money? Are they taxpayer money? Are they city reserve money? Are they general fund? Yeah, these are dollars that from the state of California that Mayor Dyer advocated to get for this specific purpose to create this revolving loan fund. Fantastic. Those are all the questions I had. Thank you for the education. With that, council president uh or council vice president. Motion to approve.

We have a motion. We have a second. Is there any opposition to item 2N as in Nelson? All right. Seeing none, item passes 6 to zero. We're going to move on to contested uh consent item 2, which is T for Tyler. Yeah, there we go. T two T's and Tyler. Uh this is my item. Um so I'll go ahead and start it off and we'll take questions. Uh so this item uh takes advantage of uh state assembly bill AB 382 uh which mandates that school zone uh speed limits be lowered uh from 25 m an hour to 20 mph by January 1st, 2031. Um the uh another great part of this bill is that it mandates that five-year uh timeline, but it gives authorization uh for municipalities to go ahead and and uh take action to do it in advance. And so that's what this bill is uh is uh taking initiative to make sure that we uh don't wait 5 years, that we do this uh now um to to get the the ball moving a little quicker here in the city of Fresno. Um you know the science is pretty clear on on uh on lowering the speed limit. Uh it will save lives. Uh research has shown that when uh the speed drops to 20 mph um you know that crashes uh involving child pedestrians and cyclists decline significantly uh by as much as 60% uh compared to higher uh baseline speeds. And when a crash uh does occur, um the speed makes an enormous difference, right? So you take a look at some of the numbers from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Uh pedestrian that struck at 20 mph has about a 46% chance of sustaining moderate or worse uh

injury. But at 25 mph, that risk jumps to roughly 62%. Um and additionally at 25 mph um increases um the chances increase roughly three times that that someone's going to be killed uh then struck at at 20 mph. So um the 5 mph uh difference really makes um you know can have a substantial impact. Uh it may not sound like much but you know on a street filled with children it really could mean the difference between um a close call and a and a tragedy. So um again this this bill is going to direct the administration to proceed with identifying the funding and uh implementation so that we can get this going as as soon as uh we can. Um the we don't prescribe any specific timelines here u to give that flexibility uh to the executive branch. Um but I do hope to see this implemented as soon as possible uh in an ideal scenario by the beginning of next school year. Uh but we'll have to see what kind of capacity we have. Um so with that said, I'll hand it off to council member uh Richardson who who pulled the item and then we've got after him we've got council member Pereah. All right. Thank you, Council Vice President. Director Moer, you mind joining us at the podium? While you're coming up, I'll make clear I I don't contest the consent of this item. Uh but I think it's it's important to kind of answer some nuts and bolts questions. Um, nothing too confusing here. So, outside of just swapping out, right, the physical swapping out of a 25 mph for a 20 mph sign, what else goes into this process?

Oh, good morning, Council Scott Moer, public works director. Uh, so, uh, one thing, uh, as, uh, as Council Member Aspire noted in the bill, uh, the California Vehicle Code has changed. So there is no special uh warrant process on this. There are no studies ne necessary as far as um uh radar speed surveys or anything of that sort. Uh it's it's as uh stated it's simply a resolution where the city of Fresno would now have 20 mph as its primacy school zone uh speed limit when children are present as soon as we swap the signs out. uh staff would respectfully suggest that uh once we embark on this uh that it that it needs to then be done citywide. As soon as we start rolling, we should we should do that citywide uh to avoid just to provide clarity for the community. Uh whatever school zone you're in, PE drivers will become accustomed to this is a 20 mph zone.

So other than swapping the signs, what else is there anything else enforcement wise? Is there anything else marking wise that goes into this? Uh the mark the markings are not changed. It's simply it is changing out the signs. Quite literally just a sign swap. Yes. Uh we have a total of 149 schools uh throughout the city uh and uh we've already looked at number of signs and cost for that. So uh it's a big effort. Does this also mean that any radar speed signs that exist in those uh areas of the city will go from not just a notification of your speed but the flashing to being above speed will move from 26 mph to 21? You understand what I'm saying?

Let me ask uh my assistant director Jill Gormley on that as far as the radar speed signs. Appreciate it. Good morning. Jill Gormley, assistant director public works department. Um, as far as the radar signs, uh, they'd have to be reprogrammed. If they're if they are programmed at a 25, we'd have to change that programming.

Okay. Fantastic. And the last question I had, I know that with the safe crossings, um, namely as it comes to, uh, crosswalks in the vicinity of schools that a lot of times we're able to find partnerships with school districts to be able to split the costs or have them cover the cost of those. Has there been any effort put in around these schools, whether it's with Fresno, Clovis, Tanganger, or Central Unified School Districts to split the cost of any of these sign swaps or reprogrammings?

Uh that that conversation has not happened yet uh from uh the department level. Um certainly certainly that's a conversation that we could have. Uh traditionally the schools are not involved in the cost of the uh 25 mph signs. That's a just a standard requirement. And I know that this is a pretty fresh item. Uh but have we gotten any sort of uh push back? I haven't seen any trade memos about it, but have we gotten any sort of push back from any part of the community about this process?

Uh no, council. We've not heard back from the community as far as any opposition or concerns on the change. Uh again that the state legislation uh was fairly recent um and uh the resolution just is coming before the council today. All right. Thank you director. I appreciate your time. Council vice president. That's all I had.

Yeah. Thank you for the the questions. Um yeah it was not my intention to split this cost. I mean I think that would prolong the uh process if we were to go and ask school district by school district. Uh we are there has been some suggestion no commitment but there has been a suggestion by the state that they could re help reimburse. I'm not counting on it but we'll take you know we'll look at what options are available and pursue uh pursue the pursue the re uh reimbursement. Um before I go to the next uh speaker I will make a motion to approve this item enthusiastically second. We have second third fourth. Um I believe council member Pereah was was first and with that we have council member Perea and then council member Arius.

Thank you council vice president. I just want to thank you for bringing this item forward for being proactive with this. Um safe routes to school investments has been a priority of my office and so we are spending a lot of resources right now installing the the flashing speed radar signs in school areas. Uh speed humps, bike lanes, high visibility crosswalks. We're installing missing sidewalks um all around the perimeter of schools. And so this is just one more tool in our tool toolkit to encourage drivers to follow the speed limit, to slow down, to start paying more attention, especially near um our schools. And as somebody who picks up their kid from um school and sees a lot of the chaos that happens within school zones, I think lowering the speed limit is always a good idea. Um, with that, you know, we can have all of the rules in the world, but we need to make sure that we have the resources to um, invest in enforcement as well. Our police department does an incredible job. We have an incredible mobile unit that is constantly out there um, encouraging and motivating people to follow the our our traffic laws out on the streets. And so I just want to make sure that come budget time, um, we have a discussion about what enforcement resources, if any, are needed so we can better enforce any and all traffic laws that we do currently have on the books to keep our residents safe. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, council member. Um, agreed. I mean, it's not a one uh it's not one silver bullet fix here, but I think it it's a it's a great tool um at our disposal along with many others that we got to continue uh working on. Council member Barius,

just a couple of suggestions. One, that um prior to enforcement, we do an educational campaign um that goes broad. I know we have a communications team in the mayor's office in public works. Um and then secondly that I would suggest you coincide with the opening of schools any execution implementation because it's very hard to get drivers attention but you could get a lot of the school communities attention right before the opening of school begins every you know August. Um, so as you're looking at execution implementation, I would just suggest that you coincide those together cuz there's going to be a lot of pissed off people once we start ticketing folks for the new rules and their first argument will be I didn't know and the city didn't tell us. So as much you know publication as we can do and coordinate it with opening schools. I think that's a as pretty good outreach as possible. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate the input from our resident uh school administrator. Uh, seeing no other folks punched up, we do have a motion. We have a second. Um, any opposed? All right. Seeing none, that item passes 7 to zero. And, uh, city manager will uh we'll be in touch. Um, like I said, it'd be it would be fantastic to have kind of an aggressive effort and coincide with the beginning of the school year. So, that's that starts a a timeline. and with respect to you know one of the items we had discussed at a previous meeting right these are the types of things I'd like to prioritize um in terms of limited capacity um you know so it'll make a real real difference folks thank you uh with that it is 11:47 uh what we are going to do we've taken close session on uh public comment at this point

we have okay so at this point we are going to break for lunch we come back for lunch we're going to read the roster yeah session yeah so we'll probably go to close session after we do have one more open session item which is the workshop slash item on the um the midyear budget review. Uh but just in case we end up coming back in the close session upon our return from lunch at 1:30, I'm going to have the city attorney read those items that um that we'll be hearing in close session.

Today in close session, we have item 5A, conference with labor negotiators, all units listed on the agenda. Item 5 B, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, one potential case. Item 5 C, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, one potential case. Item 5D, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, city of Fresno versus Sally Zho. Item 5E, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, city of Fresno versus Wu Jin Xi. Item 5 F, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, one potential case. Item 5G, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, one potential case. Item 5H, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, Angela Baskerville versus City of Fresno. We may have reportable items after close session. Heat.

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Thank you all for your continued patience. It's 3:48 p.m. We have just come out of close session uh for our marathon meeting. Uh city attorney, is there anything to report out of close session today? Not today, council president. Okay. Thank you. We have one final item on today's agenda. And as a reminder, we have already taken all public comment today, especi including unscheduled communication. Uh but our final item will have public comment uh on this item alone. That is 3A, a presentation of the fiscal year 2026 midyear budget. And I'm pretty darn sure we want we want a presentation on this. So, mayor, you'll have the floor.

Thank you, Council President. And I'm only introduction.

Thank you. There we go. Mayor,

thank you, Council President. Um I'm going to give just a a brief overview of uh of the midyear report and then you have an action item before you as well. Uh and uh as council president and vice president know we went over this with you yesterday and then I believe yesterday evening this uh slide deck went out to all of you and I'll have our team come up shortly. But just as an overview I wanted to say that um sales tax revenue for the city of Fresno is uh coming in strong. uh property tax uh is also coming in strong and you're going to see that we were very very close on our property tax projections and uh just by way of uh how we as a city or during the budget process uh our private consultant HDL provides us with an estimate that we build our budget on in terms of uh sales tax revenue and then we add 2% to that uh as a city in order to build our budget for the following year and we felt very very safe in in doing that. Uh in terms of property tax, we uh base our budget build on a 5-year average on uh the last five years of the property tax and we wait that uh with the weighted towards the end. So if uh we see that it's really trending up in year four and five, we may adjust it upward. And then our business tax uh is a based on a three-year average. And again, I just uh by way of a reminder, about 40% of our entire revenue for the city of Fresno's general fund comes from um property tax and about 30% comes from sales tax. And then you'll see the other ones are going to be business license, rooms tax, and and the like. Um, and so, uh, I'll also share that, uh, in terms of the the sales tax and property tax revenue, what you're going to see before

you in the midyear is that the, um, economic incentives for some of the ones like Ulta, GAP, um, Amazon, Bets Manufacturing, those have already been taken out and factored into to what you're going to see. And so, uh, also you're going to see in here the enhanced infrastructure financing district, uh, council member, uh, Sparzo put forth, uh, I believe with council member Arius a few years ago. You're going to see that, uh, that money now comes out of the property tax. And as we do the build it, but the budget build for you in the future, uh, we'll make sure we categorize uh, that separately. Um, and I think, uh, with that, I'm not going to steal their thunder and get into the the final numbers, uh, other than to say that although our property tax and sales tax continue to be strong, unfortunately, our expenditures uh, continue to arise in the city, which continues to cause a ultimate shortfall for us that we're going to have to face as we build the FY27 budget. And you'll hear that shortly. So with that, I'll turn it over to All right.

And while Ed comes up, mayor, I just want to compliment you and your and the city manager. I appreciate all the department heads being here today. It says a lot. And you guys do a lot of great work and provide services to our residents. We appreciate you.

Okay. So, uh, from our budget office, Ed Shane will come up and and present. And we always have, uh, uh, Santino and and Ruthie that can provide you any details that you need. Thank you. Great job. Thank you, mayor. Appreciate it. All right. So, with that, if we can get the presentation back up, I'll get started. So, good morning, uh, president and members of the city council. Uh, as the mayor said, I'm Edward Shane, the assistant director for budget and management studies. And today, I'll be presenting the FY2026 midyear budget overview. And with that, I'll begin with kind of an overview of what what exactly is it when we say midyear? What do we mean? So, at each midyear, the city prepares a comprehensive review of year-to-ate revenues and expenditures based on the first half of the year's activity. Uh based on that review, uh each department submits to the budget and management studies division an estimate for their fullear expenditures and revenues. Those estimates are carefully reviewed by the budget office uh finance and the mayor and city manager's office. The objectives of that review are to assess the cost efficiency of all activities, identify any budget adjustments that are needed, and very importantly to calculate the carryover which really is the starting line for the next year's budget. And of course, a careful and accurate mid-year estimate is a critical first step in the preparation of the next fiscal year's budget. Before we dive into the current year's estimate, we've made available here a three-year history of general fund resources for reference. Each fiscal year runs from July 1st to June 30th. We'll go over each of these categories

in more detail on the next slide, but it's notable that 77.5% of the general fund revenues come from four sources, including sales tax, property tax, business license tax, and room tax. Also notable is that each year's unspent funds carry over to the next year, and this carryover funding has been an important component in balancing the budget each year. For example, carryover from FY2024 to FY2025 totaled $33,97,400. This slide is an overview of the current year fiscal year 2026 revenues. We're on slide four if you're following along on paper. Uh, and this has actual FY2025 receipts shown for comparison. So we'll begin by looking at the prior year carryover. As we discussed previously, that fiscal year 2025 carryover from the prior year was $33.9 million as shown in the FY2025 actuals column. The next column, fiscal year 2026 adopted, shows that upon budget adoption for the current year, we anticipated receiving carryover funds from FY2025 activities totaling $26.2 million. It's important to note that this value would have been significantly lower if not for the 27.6 million of ARPA funds that were utilized in fiscal year 2025 for operations. Next, you'll see that the fiscal year 2026 amended carryover is $29.2 million. This is higher than the adopted by the amount of the general fund amendments or AARs that have been approved by the

council, most notably AAR number 14, um, which recognized the city council's operating and infrastructure carryover from FY2025. Next, the FY2026 midyear estimate shows that after all FY2025 activity has been reconciled, we have calculated $34.4 million of general fund carryover, which in the next column titled variance to amended, you can see is $5.2 million favorable to the budget. And we'll discuss on an upcoming slide how this may be needed to fully fund next year's activities. Now, we'll review revenues. After years of very slow or negative growth, this year's sales tax has turned a corner with receipts for the first two quarters of the fiscal year strong enough to support a higher estimate. In consultation with our sales tax consulting partners, HDL sales tax is now estimated to be 147.6 million or about 3.9 million higher than budget. Property tax continues to be relatively strong. After reconciling all receipts received to date, it's estimated to come in at 2011.3 million, approximately flat with the budgeted values. Business license is estimated at 24.4 million, approximately 815,000 above budget. And room tax is estimated at 15.9 million, about 618,000 lower than budget. Franchise fees are estimated to be 24.8 million, which is about 1 million higher than budgeted. Other taxes and fees uh other taxes and fees include public safety sales tax, real estate transfer

tax, and card room revenues, and are estimated to be about $7.7 million, roughly in line with budget. Charges for current services include all of the charges and fees collected by the various departments for services rendered. We expect to collect $36.4 million slightly favorable to budget after all the departments have submitted their estimates. All other revenues are broken out on the next slide in more detail, but here you can see that they are estimated to be 36.4 million also roughly in line with budget. Altogether, revenues are estimated to be 506.1 million, approximately 5.4 million higher than budgeted. The revenue subtotal then is added to the prior year carryover to equal the total resources available to the city for general fund operations in fiscal year 2026. And that total is 540.5 million. Okay, so since we know that there are often questions about the makeup of the all other revenue category, this slide further breaks down that category from the previous slide. Intergovernmental revenue is revenue from other governmental agencies such as school districts for services provided by the city of Fresno. It is estimated to be 10.9 million or about $400,000 favorable to budget. Intragovernmental revenue as opposed to intergovernmental revenue. Intragovernmental revenue is revenue from within the city's departments for services provided by general fund departments in support of enterprise and special revenue activities. This

estimate is 20 million, about 581,000 unfavorable to budget. All other revenues include anything that doesn't fall neatly into another category, such as the portfolio management fee, sales of obsolete items, and miscellaneous revenues such as refunds posted by departments. This is estimated to be 2.2 million, approximately 443,000 higher than budgeted. On slide six, uh you'll see the general fund net ending balance. So taken all together, this slide presents the city's annual resources and expenses combined. When you add transfers, the bottom line is the net ending balance. and transfers. Those are interfund transfers where revenue is transferred either to or from the general fund from another enterprise, special revenue, internal service, or capital fund. The largest transfers are made from the general fund for principal and interest on the city's debt. The net ending balance is budgeted to equal zero as you can see in the FY2026 adopted and amended columns as required to maintain a balanced budget. However, as you can see in the FY2026 midyear estimate column, the net ending balance after completing the midyear estimate exercise is estimated to be 17.3 million. of that 7,329,000 must be carried over to the next fiscal year for incomplete capital projects resulting in a net ending balance um of 9,948,700. So that's the operating net ending balance. As part of this legislative item, the city has also attached an amendment to

the annual appropriations resolution for 1,557,000 to fully fund fire department attrition and overtime and 43,800 for the current year portion of the second drill school. After accounting for the capital carryover and amendments, the FY2026 net ending balance is estimated at 7,987,900. Okay. And now on this slide, this slide, this final slide, slide number seven, it prevents a it presents a preview of the fiscal year 2027 base budget. As you can see here, the 7.9 million from the previous slide estimated as the ending balance for FY2026 becomes the carryover balance for fiscal year 2027. After accounting for base revenues, expenses, and transfers, the total funding gap that will need to be closed to fully balance the fiscal year 2027 budget is presently estimated at $23.3 million. This estimate does account for attrition, all of the labor contracts and all other contractual obligations. And with that, uh, the administration and my office are available for questions.

Great. Thank you so much, Ed. At this time, I have council member Arias punched up.

Okay. Oh, we're going to play, city manager. We're going to play. This is we're broke and we find money for fire. Um, a couple of questions around assumptions that you've made. What was the assumption in your proposed um, outline here around the casino revenue specifically and the reason and give me some context really quick. A few years ago, we were asked to grant the casino an additional 50 tables with a guarantee that would have generated additional million dollars a year. and I've been waiting for additional million dollars a year in revenue from the casino and I've yet to see it reflected on any of the revenue side. So your proposal on other revenue includes casino table money, right?

It does. How much of it are you have we received and are you anticipating receiving for the year? Yep. So casino uh revenue, the card room revenue has been about a million dollars and that's what's uh estimated for 2026. though their promise of additional million dollars of revenue has not come to fruition with the additional tables that we granted them

as of as of now. No, I was checking in with them this week uh in preparation for the fiscal 27 budget given the change in state regulations and I do know that they did finally finish the physical improvements of the expanded space and it's my understanding that they um had uh their application into the ABC for expansion of their ABC permit into the new space which would go along with the new tables. So, as of now, they have not activated the additional tables. Correct. When did we make that approval of granting them the additional tables? Oh my gosh. A couple two years ago,

I I remember they wrote a really nice article that we were anti- business and I think they referenced member Maxwell as the most anti- business politician in town because without those additional tables that they were guaranteeing a million dollars of revenue the next month, it wouldn't be viable. So, um, city attorney, can you get back to us on whether the council has the authority to crawl back those tables since the revenue has not come to fruition? Um, then your assumptions around your revenues. Did you bake in the assumption that um we're going to increase water and sewer rates? This is only the general fund, correct? But there's indirect benefit to a general fund.

No. Right. intra governmental. So, oh, you mean as far as um I mean maybe like the parks department paying a water bill. Is that what you mean? Every department pays water bill, sewer bill, we all get charged. So, if fees goes up then, so that would be for 27. So, um there aren't any um proposed water and sewer increases in fiscal year 26. And so, this is only the midyear for 26. So any impact on future water sewer increases would affect the next fiscal year budget. But what I'm asking is in your last column on your last slide is FY27 base budget general fund. Correct.

Oh no it's not. See the mayor understands my English ability to give direct answers. So, and council member, I just want to clarify that base budget. We are in the infancy stages of the base budget. So, all this is is basically carrying forward um previous year expenses for the most part. It's not any sort of additions. Yeah, we're we're not there yet.

Fair enough. Um did you bake in in your assumptions on any of these years the outstanding um labor contracts that we have yet to settle without getting to labor negotiations? Is that continuing in the budget? So I'm sorry, are you talking about for fiscal 27 base and the current? Yes, it's it's accounted for in fiscal 27 base. Okay. The the agreements that have been signed are accounted for. Yeah, but what I'm asking is we have some agreements that have yet to be signed. Are we leaving the money in the budget in case for when those agreements are signed that there's money to actually fund them?

Yes, we have something, but I'm not going to tell you what it is publicly. That's my question. Yeah, I don't want to get to labor negotiations in the open, but it is baked in. Fair enough. Um, overtime. Why are we bringing the fire overtime at this time stage of the game when we're not bringing overtime for other departments? What's the urgency around you guys asking us to allocate carryover money for one department outside the context of any other department? Does no other department need resources at this point?

That is correct. Yeah, the fire department is the only one that has a midyear estimate showing that they'll exceed the budget. What's the total budget for the fire department overtime adopted budget? How much are they? What's their total overtime budget? We'd have to look into that to get that number for you. I don't have it immediately available, but we should be able to get We have it. Oh, great.

Uh oh, the mayor. I I'll let Devin do this, but but I I did want to say um what drove this was uh a an attrition rate that the fire department had this last year that was unanticipated. Meaning more people retiring than we had seen in in decades

and it's because of there was some mass hiring that was done at one point. That means you're seeing mass retirements. As a result of that, I think you know in the fire department whenever there is a vacancy, uh it it generate it causes overtime, right, to fill the rigs. And so we're put in a position number one is do you continue to pay overtime uh or do you put on a drill school? And uh and so part of this is to pay to have an additional drill school. We already have one. This will provide a second drill school and we'll pay for about half of it um for the second one. So I'll let um uh yes if you want to come up and talk about the details of that

and and if you could answer this question. I recognize the basic math that vacancies result in overtime but vacancies also result in budget savings. Mhm. So, how much of this can be attributed to a higher vacancy rate versus you guys running through your overtime budget? What is your total overtime budget for the fiscal year?

And for the record, I like higher 8.4 million. Come closer, please. Uh, as far as the vacancy, uh, by the way, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Um the vacancy uh I think you you probably understand we have a constant staffing uh across correct all our apparatus and so when somebody gets hurt goes takes time off or vacates for a retirement it has to be backfilled or vacation correct

vacation yeah leave u yeah so it has to be backfilled so um the current issue that we're in um the million-dollar attrition like the mayor mentioned uh we we can't achieve that based on the fact that we have a constant staffing across the board. The only way we can do that is by shutting down rigs and reducing service. Um the other thing too, the um the drill school costs like the the mayor mentioned the 400,000 is to add additional personnel to absorb some of those overtime costs.

I I remember at one time and the city management could correct me, but the fire overtime budget was around $10 million. Wasn't it that high at one time? Because I remember we were debating the safer grant and the promise at that time from staff was if you hire more firefighters, our overtime expenditures will go down. So please hire dozens of new firefighters. And I've seen the opposite since I've been sitting here for 7 years. I've seen your overtime budget grow, not go down as promised. Can you make sense of was that just a false presentation that fire hiring more firefighters would reduce overtime obligations year-over-year? I I can't speak to what you were told previously, so I'm not sure exactly how it was,

but is the theory is the theory solid that hiring more firefighter positions would reduce overtime commitments because I've seen the opposite. So, it's it's it depends is the answer. First, Ivonne, can you talk to us about what the overtime budget was um in 21 uh with the consecutive years of what fire's overtime budget? Um I do know that we were structurally underfunded in the fire department. So, what was the fire department's budget? Right now, it's 8.4 million in overtime. I'd have to go grab those numbers real quick. In general terms, is it was it four or was it

lower? It's been low. um our actuals have been around 9 10 11 million each year but our budget was always four five six million. So let me ask you this and if if we know that our average expenditure of overtime is between seven and 10 why are we artificially saying the budget at four.

It's because we're in any given year you're going to probably anticipate uh vacancies and so your salary savings and benefits from those vacancies should offset that overtime. So that's where the depends comes in. So we had done a lot of analysis. Um when we came to I think it was in fiscal 22 the there's always been a line item plugged in to the fire department budget for overtime. It was a random number. Every single year at this time there was an AAR that was brought usually for far in excess of what this AAR is. it was to could be anywhere from four 5 6 7 million. So we went through an exercise a couple years ago to try and figure out what should the fire department overtime budget be and we did an analysis based on the staffing based on um the amount of time uh leave time that's afforded and what's the average time that each firefighter takes off where there has to be a backfill. So, and and that also is a little bit of the analysis of whether or not um it's cheaper to pay overtime versus hiring firefighters. And um to the contrary, um we had heard that it was cheaper to pay overtime than hire firefighters. One of the reasons for hiring additional firefighters also had to do with um with a lot of firefighter fatigue because we had grown as a city tremendously and then not had and not added firefighters. So we go through this analysis and and generally speaking when you look at the money it is cheaper to pay overtime than to hire firefighters. Except what we're encountering in the fire department now is something that we haven't encountered in the past, which is we are up to as of

today 50 vacancies. When we put this this mid-year budget together, we were at 47. So it becomes sort of the law of diminishing returns where we have so many vacancies that um we have people at the higher ends of the pay scale that are backfilling being paid overtime for an entry- level firefighter job. And so the salary savings for a firefighter do not cover the cost of say a captain or a specialist backfilling that overtime. So we are at the point of needing to hire additional firefighters and we need to fill the relief pool within our labor contract. We have a relief pool that helps provide additional staffing when there are the daily absences. that relief full has been entirely eaten by just minimum daily staffing. So right now um in the coming couple weeks we're going to be graduating a drill school of what what's going to graduate?

15 15 um once again we're at 50 vacancies. And the second part of this is we have to begin another drill school immediately because our attrition is far outpacing um our ability to hire. So this is Yeah. Thank you for the thorough explanation. Yes, you're welcome. Given your experience, are you anticipating the same level of attrition next year? And should we anticipate more positions in the upcoming budget to address that or are you going to assume the attrition rate of the previous year?

I would assume you're going to see attrition rates um similar or higher the next come the few next next few years. Back in when I first got hired in 2002, they hired uh I think we did three to two to three drill schools a year for multiple years just to make up for the same situation we're currently in. So all those people are coming up to So we're in a cycle of retirement. Yeah. And so the chief is uh is planning and his goal is to do smaller drill schools going forward after we get through this this bulk. And it just every year we're going to be hiring, you know, certain numbers to avoid this this mass retirement.

Thank you for allowing me to kick the tires on the overtime conversation. I appreciate it. Um, city manager, I didn't see any overtime, and I think the $10 million number I had was around police. It might have been police overtime. Um, but where are we at with overtime in general with police? Because I have I don't see them on asking for more midyear funds. Any update on what is the situation with police or are we going to get a request next week?

No, you you won't have a request um you won't have a request for additional appropriations um for the police department. Um they are going to be cutting it close this year. Um they've had to spend a lot of additional unanticipated overtime in the Tower District keeping the peace. Um holding shifts over nearly every Friday, Saturday night for at least 2 hours um which has been very costly. Um but um within the police department um because their budget is so large um if they do tip the scale on overtime, they have some other spots, but we should hopefully come in just at or just a little bit over, they will not need additional appropriations um authority to make it through the fiscal year um as we stand today. Unless some serious serious uh event happens that

remind me what's the overtime budget for police department current overtime is 5 million no 3.3 or five hold on you guys need to come to the microphone when you're talking please hold on is that right budget That's not old.

Good afternoon, Chief. Well, hello. How are you? Good. Thanks. I don't have any questions. I guess between 3 and 04 3.6. That's fair enough. That's all I need. That's a good enough answer. So, I get an idea of whether we should expect any additional appropriations requests before the next budget is proposed. Council President, those are all my questions. Thank you to the staff. Thank you, Council Member. Next, I have Council Member Richardson. Thanks, Ed. Are you still I think we got the answer we need. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Richardson. We'll have the floor. Is Ed still here. He's right here. Yeah, right there. Okay. Just a couple questions for you from the presentation.

Excellent. All right. Good afternoon. Uh will you go into a little bit of detail real quick about the intergovernmental revenues, what sources those are, where we can look to see any fluctuations of that um stemming from. Yeah, the the biggest um inter in intergovernmental revenue is Fresno Unified and other school districts um with regard to the particular contracts that the police department or other um departments have have with them to provide services. So that that's really the biggest component.

Okay. Okay. And the second question I had, uh I may have heard this incorrectly, but um is there some part of the intragovernmental revenue that is uh general fund subsidies or subsidizing? Can you go into that a little bit? I thought I heard you say that. So intragovernmental revenue is really going to be the biggest component of that is what's called the cost allocation plan. And it's a calculation of how much it costs for the city to provide basic administrative services. And part of that gets allocated to the enterprise and special revenue department. So that's them that's the enterprise departments paying the general fund. There's not general fund subsidies in that category.

Got it. So the fact that we're negative on the variance there with the intergovernmental revenue is because we've been putting more into the running of the enterprise entities than they've been putting back into the general fund. Is that correct? Right. So there are some variable components. For example, um if there's purchasing activity that's happening that will get build based on the activity. So it just essentially indicates that when all the departments are estimating how much activity they're going to be reimbursed for, it's a little bit lower than what we what we had anticipated.

Okay. And seeing that we're about uh just over half a million below, is that coincidental with the um terminal expansion at the airport or some other enterprise fund? The biggest part of it uh to be honest is um essentially an allocation uh oversight in the budget build. There was a portion of the the revenue that was anticipated to be reimbursed, but that particular eligible activity wasn't wasn't quite right. Okay, that's all I had. Thank you. Y next we have the council vice president. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah, thanks Council Presidents. Uh, appreciate the presentation. Um, Edward, uh, very thorough. I think we've seen we're seeing the same trend that we've been seeing the last several years. We have, I think, more revenue that's revenue increased. Correct. According to the presentation, that's correct. Yeah. So, as I've told the public, tell folks at the town halls, um, our situation is not that different from your average household or business where revenues are increasing. Uh there is there is money uh but our costs have outpaced and put us in this uh particular uh predicament. Um the deficit that you projected at least today is 23 uh 24 million for next fiscal year.

That's right. Yep. Uh 23 uh got it right here. 23.3 approximately. So last year I told you that would grow and it certainly did roughly to um I forget what the number was. I was almost on the head. What do we think this deficit will grow to and um between now and June 2027?

I would I would struggle to speculate. Um of course the departments are really actively working on identifying their needs. Uh those will all be they'll undergo a really thorough review process. I know my office is already starting to go back and forth with a lot of the departments to make sure that you know the individual nuances of each and every request are fully fully analyzed but it's really hard to say at this point. Okay. Um well I mean probably at least 50% increase probably. I think last year, council member, when we were here a year ago, we were in a very similar situation around this 20-ish million,

it almost doubled.

And I think by the time when we started working on the budget and started loading um expenses as part of the budget build, we grew to 50. We I think ultimately we grew to about about 50 which then we went through our um balancing um you know as we prepare the budget and um you know requesting um you know looking at attrition higher attrition numbers uh requesting budget cuts from each department. you know, we've already put that that call out to departments and um you know, we've this is going to be the third year that we've requested third year in a row we've requested cut plans from departments. So, I would beg to say that probably the lowhanging no I know the lowhanging fruit is gone. So, um, you know, frankly, I have to say, not looking forward to, um, the type of cuts that are going to be coming from departments because they don't have a lot of options left. And I think, um, you know, it's going to be a very difficult process. Oh, Mayor, I'm sorry. I didn't see you step up there. Go ahead. Yeah, I was just I was just going to say I think the difference between this year and last year was when we had department meetings last year is when we really learned about so many of the contractual obligations that we had for software and a number of other things. And it was at that time that we added to our deficit this year. I think the budget office has done a really good job of anticipating what those might be based on um based on input from the department. So I don't think it's going to grow as much. And this budget also includes the 6.18% attrition for um anticipated vacancies for the departments. And as you heard the city manager say also uh asking departments for a 5% budget cut which I

have no idea how they would ever come up with 5% based on the fact we've we've uh cut so much in the last two years. So yes, we have more accurate accounting and then see to the best of your knowledge, I mean you've I mean we've gone so I mean these last several fiscal years and we uh generally I think have have spared extremely large service impacts. I I wouldn't be surprised if we don't somehow get to the 35 mark. Uh I'm not sure it's just going to about a 50% increase. That's That's my boy. You get hopefully not, but we And then as you know, um that's before council motions.

Always. Always. Um any So, actually, mayor, while while you're up here, do you have any more magic tricks up the up the sleeve here for helping to alleviate or is that all built in already?

I think, you know, part of the prior year magic trip uh tricks were two things. Uh number one was American Rescue funds. uh those will not be available during this fiscal year because all of those funds have to be spent by the end of uh this year December. So they uh so we won't be able to count on them. And then secondly was uh some of the shifts that we did in the past with measure P and um that's going to be a challenge this year too. But as you know we will continue to be as creative as we possibly can. We also uh went out and increased our revenue at one point uh through our um Airbnb uh getting a hotel tax that increased our annual revenue by about a million dollars. So, we'll continue to look at ways to increase, but I I honestly think we're going to we're going to have to increase our attrition rates in order to make the the budget balance.

Yeah. And and to that point, I mean, whether it's anyone on the council or whether it's your office, if you do have any kind of short-term ideas for increasing revenue that we could put into the play now to help alleviate uh later, um you know, I think every every bit will help right at this point given what, you know, potential service impacts we may see. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. Um lastly, I did want to clarify the uh the EIFD dollars that uh I think it was about a million and change. Uh what was that exact number, Edward? On the EFT in uh fiscal year 2026, the estimated transfer is about 1 million. 1.060. Yeah. 1.060.

Yeah. Yeah. So even even though the mayor made it sound like a bad thing, it's it's a really it's a really good thing. It's a really good thing. Um Yeah. So the the the EIFD that I mean those dollars have been I mean every since we passed the baseline um EIFD a few years back I mean we've been pulling that that revenue. It's just it's getting to become a larger number because the more our property values grow and the property taxes grow the larger that increment portion will will grow. So um I know we'll see we've been seeing the number get larger and larger and uh every fiscal year it's going to get bigger and bigger. That that's the point. Um, but it's it grows with the the property value growth and um it's working and that's those are dollars that are not siphoned away to a black hole. I mean they're they're going to be spent and utilized in the in you know within the EFT boundary of downtown and Blackstone. So um and that was the intention. The intention was you know even when things get tough around here that we were not going to turn our back on investing in inner city Fresno. Um and so I hope when not I hope I will get a bond out. Um so in addition to this um in addition to this spending that we end up doing FY27 uh the EFD I'll make sure is the chair of that uh public financing authority uh that will probably put another 7 to9 million in circulation through uh through bond dollars of investment in our community. So um while it's not accounted for here, you can't account for it at this point because it's not uh not yet generated and not part of the general fund. Um that is more spending that will occur. Just FYI to to the public. The UFD money is a is a good thing. We're trading at 1 million for seven to nine million of spending that will um that will materialize this this coming fiscal year. That'll be for me, Council President. Thank you, Council Vice President. Any other council members have any questions for staff? I do have uh a few questions when it

comes to the revenue side. I we can go to a slide three, I suppose. Um, just want to know in terms of revenue, where on that revenue does it show the million dollars we get every year from our card room, which is Club One Casino? Would that be under as in other taxes and fees? Okay. So, right now for the actuals for 2025, we get 7.4 million other taxes and fees. Now, my understanding is there is a state law that either was passed or is being passed where card rooms in in cities like Fresno will no longer be allowed to have blackjack. Is that correct? That's my understanding. Yes.

So, that's going to be a big hit for us. Uh, Club One creates a lot of jobs. It's created a lot of revenue for our community. And how much are we looking at losing because of the this this regulation? Is there an estimate at all? We we've reduced the 27 by half. So, we're going to lose half our revenue because Sacramento decided to pass a rule that only impacts our cities where we lose blackjack tables. It's that much we're going to lose every year. That is our estimate right now.

Wow. Okay. Well, okay. Thanks a lot. Not not to you guys, but uh the folks up there make it harder and harder for us every day. Uh I do appreciate the work that's been done. Uh I look forward to approving the resolution today. Um I'm looking at this budget. I will be looking at uh in the future when the mayor does the hard work of building a new budget, what we can do to bring in revenue. Not like we're not doing enough. I know you guys have looked under the couch cushions. Maybe there's things we can do to shore up um revenue from cannabis or other areas. Stop some of the illegal activity that's been happening to help uh secure the businesses that are I can't believe I'm the one saying that, but secure the cannabis businesses that are here now to make sure they can retain their share of the market, not lose it out to the black market. So, thank you all very much. Any if there's no other council members, um I'll make a motion to go ahead. Oh, okay. Good times. What we're going to do is we need to go wrangle up a couple of council members. So, what I'm going to do u is uh we only have four out here while we still have quorum with because it's an AR requires a fifth vote. So, what I will do is I'm going to call a 5m minute recess. We'll be back at 4:38. Thank you all for your patience. Mary Amy, can you ring the bell for them please?

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

we wanted, but we're going to get back our meeting. Thank you all for being patient. So, we are at 4:41 now. I'm going to open this item up 3A to public comment. Come on, department directors. I'm kidding. We're going to open three up 3A up to public comment. Is there anyone from the public wishing to comment on item 3A on today's agenda? If you want to comment, come forward. You'll have three minutes. Is there someone in the back? Oh, I guess not. We have a good district 6 constituent here, but I think she's going to sit down today. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, with that, we're going to end public comment on this item. Bring it back to the council. I uh make a motion to approve the resolution and the AA. Can we do that as one motion? Yes. Okay. There's been a motion. There's been a second by council member Prey. I apologize. I heard her first.

Um, I was okay. Any further discussion from the council? Any comments? Any opposition? There being none, this item passes 520 with two absences. Thank you, council. Thank you, council. Thank you, staff. Um, that we've already covered unscheduled. Can I just really quickly say thank you before everybody scuedles out of here? Yep. So, thank you everybody for your work thus far in midyear.

Um on to the next fiscal year, right? I know it seems like we're in perpetual budget cycle, but we'll get through it. I promise you. Um so, thank you all for being here today. Appreciate everybody's efforts. Um certainly Ruthie, Santino, Ed, and the budget team and all of the department staff. We appreciate you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you all very much. directors. Uh we've already taken unscheduled communication today. So the good news is um we will adjourn our meeting in a moment. Before we do, we'll take one privilege as a council president and say usually when my dad watches these meetings, he falls asleep. So I brought him here today and he hasn't fallen asleep yet. So we did a good job today. So good to see you, Dad. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Journed at 4:43.