City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey.

Heat. Heat.

past 9. I get uh gets the balance of our colleagues on up to the dis. We're going to go ahead and uh get started here very momentarily. All right. Good morning. We'll call this meeting to order. 9:13 a.m. Uh, city clerk, would you please call the role?

Yes. Thank you. Council member Perea, present. Council member Carbassi, here. Council member Arius, presente. Council member Maxwell, present. Council member Vang present. Council member Richardson here. Vice President Esparza present. Seven members being present. We have a quorum.

Great. Uh next we'll have our invocation. And after that we'll have our pledge of allegiance. I would like to invite Father Ruby of the St. Paul uh Newman Center up to uh provide us with the invocation. And uh after that, Council Member Richardson is going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. A reading from the prophet Micah chapter 6 verse 8. What does the Lord require of us? To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God. Gracious and loving God, we gather in your presence, mindful of this sacred calling, teach us to do justice, to seek what is right and fair for all, especially for those whose voices are seldom heard. Teach us to love kindness, to act not simply with fairness but with compassion, to see one another not as opponents but as neighbors deserving dignity and respect. Teach us to walk humbly, to listen before we speak, and to understand before we judge. Bless all who serve this city of Fresno, our common home, our first responders, educators, community leaders, and volunteers. Strengthen them in their mission and renew their spirit with hope and

courage. Bless the leaders gathered here today. Grant them wisdom in their deliberations, integrity in their decisions, and a sincere commitment to the common good. May all that is done here help build Fresno as a community marked by justice, compassion, and peace. We ask this in your holy name. Amen. Please remain standing right military to present the military salute and salute. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right, we're going to go on to the agenda approval. Uh before we do that, are the uh clerk, is there any changes or items removed from the agenda?

Yes, thank you. I did want to first announce that we do have uh interpreters available for today's meeting. We have the wordly service which is providing Spanish and Punjabi interpretation that is currently operating digitally. We're also offering live virtual interpretation in Mong and American Sign Language. If you need assistance with those, please feel free to ask in the back and we can get you set up with any um devices you need. With regard to changes to the agenda, they are as follows. A separately noticed special meeting today at 3 p.m. or thereafter for an open session item file ID26-376 regarding resolution to begin the process to remove the Caesar Chavez Boulevard Street signs in support of the stand with farm workers integrity act. Special meeting item ID 26376 regarding resolution to begin the process to remove the Caesar Chavez Boulevard Street sign. The resolution is subject to mayoral veto and should have three asterisks before the title and subject to mayor's veto should be listed at the end of the title. The supplement for this item reflects the changes to the staff report. Item 20 ID26-308 regarding renewal of the Fresno Police Department annual military equipment use report. This item is being moved to general administration 3A and approval from the council is not being requested at this time. There will be a public meeting on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026 at 6 PM at city hall for this item. Approval for this item will be on the March 26th, 2026 agenda to U ID 26-326 regarding resolution of intention to annex final tract map number 6475. The subject property is in district 7, not in district 5 as previously listed. Today's meeting will be adjourned in

memory of Don Dyer, the father of our mayor, Jerry Dyer. Items removed from the agenda to I. ID26-156 regarding actions pertaining to the trolley park lighting and shade structure project was tabled to the April 9th, 2026 meeting by staff. Items moved to contested consent for further discussion. Item 2L, ID26-79, regarding approve a $3 million home investment partnerships program agreement with FCTC Family 2 LP was moved to contested consent by council member Richardson. 20 ID 26-308 regarding approve the renewal of the Fresno Police Department annual military equipment use report as originally required by Assembly Bill 481 was moved to contested consent by council member Richardson. Item 2W, ID26-199, regarding authorizing a one-year fax revenue agreement with two optional one-year extensions between the city of Fresno was moved to contested consent by council member Richardson. Item 2 Y ID 26-201 regarding awarding a two-year revenue service contract with options for three one-year extensions to STX commodities was moved to contested consent by council member Richardson 2A ID26-323 regarding resolution in support of criminal facial recognition technology at city hall was moved to contested consent by council member Arius. Item 2 CC ID 26-347 regarding resolution to conduct a study on the concentration of ownership was moved to contested consent by council member Arius. That completes the changes to the agenda. Thank you.

All right. Quite the list there. Uh council members, are there any other items you wish to either remove uh continue or pull? I'll go from my my right to left. Uh, council member Perea any Maxwell Brandon F. None. Richardson. What's left? What's left? None. Plenty left. So, you got you got lots of action today. Okay. Seeing no other changes. Is there a motion? Second.

All right. First and a second. It was councilor Maxwell and Carbasi is the second. Any opposed to approving the agenda? Seeing none, agenda is passed. 70. Uh that brings us to our very first item of the the morning. Um as uh we've been told and maybe the public has heard, we have a a vacancy in the uh council presidency. Uh so we do need to uh have an election uh per the u council rules of procedure. Um and so city attorney clerk are there is public comment on this item? Okay. I think we're going to go ahead and go out to public comment first on on this particular item and then we'll come back um we'll come back up here. I see someone punched up already, but we'll do um we'll go ahead and do the uh public comment first. So, uh, our we're on the 9:00 a.m. item, uh, 2026 city council election of both the council president and the vice president. And I invite, uh, anyone who has, uh, comments, uh, public comment on that to, uh, come on, come on down. Going once, going twice. Okay, we're going to go ahead and close public comments for the 9:00 a.m. item. Uh, and Council Member Perea and then Council Member Maxwell Punch. So, Council Member Perea.

Thank you, Council President. I would like to make a motion to nominate uh, Council Member Nelson Esparza to serve as uh, council president and council member Maxwell to serve as vice president. I'll second that. We have a a motion. We have a second. Um, thank you. number one. I appreciate that. Uh so, Council Member Maxwell, you were next, followed by Council Member Vain.

Thank you, Council Member. As far as I just wanted to thank outgoing President um Council Member Carbassi during any tenure, there are so many challenges and obstacles that come up and it's not always clear how to handle them, but I think you did so with grace and patience. and you led this council through some really tough times economically when it comes to social issues and you always did a really great job representing this body and I want to thank you for your service. I'm happy to do it. Thank you so much, Council Member. Thank you. Uh, Council Member Vain.

Thank you very much, Council President. Um, Esparza, again, I want to echo my colleague to the right here. I want to thank outgoing council president Carbasi. You've been the only council president during my tenure here and so and luckily I sat next to you. Yes. Uh it's not official. Yes, sir. And so uh you know having that uh location proximity to you and you took my hand from day one until today. I appreciate um you uh taking me under your study more or less. So likewise you were a terrific seatmate. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And um council president, I'd like to uh nominate Nick Richardson as uh council vice president. Okay, we have a a second nomination uh for for vice president. Uh so been a while since I conducted one of these clerk attorney. So we have two nominations now. We do have to deal with the first motion made prior to going on to a new motion. Unless unless it's an amendment. I see. Okay. So council president, um I'd like to withdraw my nomination. Okay. Can we can we take a comment on the nomination? You're Yeah. Yeah. you're uh on the motion that's on the floor.

Well, council member Vang had the has the floor, so it's up to if you're done, I can call on council member Richardson. Yes, I'm done. Thank you. Yeah, council member. I I know it's already been seconded, but I I just want to say I appreciate uh the nomination. Council member Freya, I think that having um having knowing how long Council Member Maxwell will be here, I think he's going to provide some good continuity. Um and I think he showed a a steady hand in his previous role when I watched him as council president. So, I I think that was a good nomination. I won't third it, but um yeah, I appreciate that. All right, great. A lot of a lot of graciousness up here. I I hope we can continue this the rest of the year. Uh but we we'll see. I know never any promises with this crowd.

Um I don't see anyone else punched up. Any other additional comments or motions? Okay, we have a motion on the table. We have a second. And I will just ask if there's anyone opposed. Okay, that motion passes seven to zero. We have uh our council leadership roles now uh filled. Uh once again, congratulations. Fantastic.

Yeah, congratulations, Council uh Vice President Maxwell. Um you know, and I just will, you know, take the liberty of thanking uh thanking my my colleagues for entrusting me with the uh the presidency for the remainder of my tenure here. Um, thank you to former council president uh Mike Carbassi uh for for your service and your uh I think 1.2 1.25 years. Um so who went over there um you know as most of you already know my to my colleagues I mean my door my phone line is always open. Um I'm always open to to listening whether you want to chat about a policy or need a a shoulder to cry on or just someone to uh someone to listen. uh even if we don't agree um you know but we can always have that open dialogue uh and I'm open to your input on how we structure uh the different components of these meetings as well as uh our legislative body collectively. Uh so I have done this before but the council is is is different now we have new faces and um new personalities and you know new conflicts that arise between us. Uh but I will do my absolute best and to you know calibrate u and adapt to all of that and keep things as orderly as we can uh and generally go the direction that's best for us and where most of us um most of us want to to go. So wanted to say thank you and I and I didn't want to provide uh council former council president uh Mike Carbosi. I see him uh punched up and then we have council member Richardson after that.

So I would like to do something now that we know who the council president is. I'd like to present you with something. First of all, you were a terrific vice president, Nelson, and I think you're going to do a great job as council president given your history and your professionalism. It might be tougher on the hecklers than I was, so we'll see how that goes. But to help you with the hecklers, um, I have a special a gavl for you, and this one's a fancy one. It's a lot lot a lot of heft to it, but uh I hope uh you uh enjoy it and uh have a great year ahead. And we have we expect great things from you, and we know we're going to get it. So, thank you for that. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. It's It's a little smaller than the one I had last time, but we'll uh we'll we'll take it. We'll we'll make it work. It's It's got some heft to it. And you beat me, too. We I think I had had a little something for you as as well. Um Oh, we'll do it right now. I mean, now's a great time to do that. We're we're we're going to ceremonials anyway. Um let me see here. Where is my staff? They were supposed to have that back. The back. Oh, come on down. Yeah. Bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring bring it on up this is this is heavy to it okay yeah I'll be able to down give it a little let's see bring it on up and I do see my colleagues bunched up so we'll we'll uh we'll do round robin here

no it's okay yeah it's fine this just bleeds into ceremonials all right council council former council president we have we have this uh this beautiful belt uh cil President uh backto back Carbasi uh 2025 2026. This is your your champion belt. This is the heavy duty one. That is pretty heavy. Show it. Yeah. Like John Cena. We we we wanted to play the the John Cena music, but that might be a little too much nostalgia for for for everyone. And then

you can't see me. And then in the in the vein of a more traditional gift, uh you know, we have your your placard here uh to commemorate your your time as uh council president. Thank you guys. I appreciate that. I I truly appreciate you guys were all great to work with. Uh and of course our clerk Amy, city Attorney Jan's administration, George Anne, I get to sit next to you again, which is great. Mayor, thank you all and thanks to the council. I really it was an honor and uh a lot more work to do ahead. So thanks Nelson. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. this one. Yeah. Raise it up for everybody one more time. Show Show them the uh Show them the the ridiculousness of this. Yeah. I want to see that in every office that you have for now.

Hey Mike, we expect you to put that on and march out of here like a boss. Only if they put the music on. Nick,

thank you. Okay. Any further comments uh or anything of the sort? All right. Appreciate you all. Thank you. Let's let's get the meeting going then. Uh so that'll lead us right into our our ceremonial presentations. Uh first up, we are going to go a little bit uh out of order. Uh and we're going to do the proclamation uh for National Reading Month uh first uh with our our youth here. And that's sponsored by Council Member Maxwell. All right. Where's my Thomas Tigers at? All right. Come on up, you guys. Come on up. Well, good morning everybody and thank you all for joining us here at City Hall today. March officially kicks off National Reading Month across the United States of America. This was founded in 1997 to commemorate Dr. Seuss beloved uh children's author. Um and it's really important to our office to recognize and take a moment to celebrate National Reading Month. This has been uh increasing youth literacy has been a huge challenge that our office has uh decided to focus on in this second seme uh term of office. In Fresno County, over 60% of third graders are unable to read at grade level. In Fresno County, over 60% of third graders are unable to

read at grade level. And we know that by the third grade, if you're unable to read at grade level, your chances of not graduating increase by a factor of four. And that literacy gap follows you not just through your academic career, but your professional career as well. And when students graduate or they leave the school system and they have that literacy gap, it makes it hard to get a job or stay employed to buy a house to raise a family. And a lot of those issues then become city issues that the city is now dealing with on the back end. And so one of the things we're trying to do is deal with these issues on the front end by investing in our youth. And so we've done a few programs. You guys might have heard of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. That was a program we were excited to get off the ground last year. Free books mailed to children in Fresno County ages 0 to 5 for free every single month um until they turn 5 years old so that by the time they enter kindergarten they have 60 children's books in their home library. This Friday we're going to be launching another literacy initiative. So stay tuned for that. But I want to highlight the awesome students I have here behind me. This is the Black Student Union from Thomas Elementary School. They're comprised of third graders all the way through sixth graders. And if anybody has ever been to the MLK garlanding ceremony, you've seen their talent firsthand. These are truly pillars of the community when it comes to how well spoken they are, how educated they are on issues facing not just our country, but here locally too in the city of Fresno. And so I wanted to honor them today and invite them to recite a creed and I think also a poem today, Miss Southern. Um, but before we do that, would you like to say a few words? Yeah, come on up. Let's give a hand for Miss Otherw with Thomas.

Good morning and thank you for having us. We're really honored. Um, as um, Councilman Maxwell said, we are Thomas BSU and we're we have um, about 35 students. So, we just have a few representing today. Um, and we have been existing since 2018. We're one of the um, active elementary BSU. So, we're getting our students ready um for um middle school and high school and college and the world just knowing who they are. We teach them five components which is leadership um academics um sorry guys leadership, academics, culture to have a voice and community service. So, we were more than excited to come here and um we have the cream of the crop here in Fresno County. So, we're really excited and you know we have the best district for so we're excited. So, we um we are gonna perform for you and so we're really excited again to be here and um the best is yet to come.

All right, let's hear it. All right, you guys.

I am a student seeking to be a scholar. I am a student seeking to be a scholar. The standard is excellent today and tomorrow. The standard is excellent today and tomorrow. I am disciplined, focused, and on time. I am discipline, focus, and on time. organized, respectful, and responsible. I am organized, respectful, and responsible. I am on a mission to elevate myself. I am on a mission to elevate myself. My family, my family, my community, my community and humanity and humanity by Dr. Chua by Dr. Chanca.

Two. Open. Open a door. Open your mind to a million stories more. Reading can take you to places far away. New cultures the world. The key. It opens our heart and it opens our heart and the world inside.

We can read together. Everyone can be a part. So open a book. Open the door. Open your mind to a million more. These these are truly some amazing kids. And I had the chance of seeing the uh is it the African-American living museum? The live museum to commemorate Black History Month. And

yeah, so we did the living museum was for um we wanted to show people and teach people about athletes and mentors and people from here from Fresno. So, not just, you know, back in the olden days, we love our feelers, but we wanted to to uh teach that. So, the students, they uh brought a person and they uh researched who the person was, dressed up like them, and so it was like a wax museum. But when you walk into them, they said who they were, who they

truly some talented kids. These are some future council members, I think, that we have right here, some future mayors. And I just want to say, keep up the good work. You guys are some of the smartest, most talented people I've ever met. And today we celebrate you. So, Miss Southern, can I have you come over here really quick? I'm going to have the clerk read the entire proc, but I want to read this last part really quick. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer, and the Fresno City Council do hereby proclaim the month of March 2026 as National Reading Month in the city of Fresno. We present this honor to you. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any of you guys want to give a little speech? Any volunteers? Nobody. What's your name? Johan. You want to hear the proclamation? Get right into the record.

All right, here we go. Whereas National Reading Month, established in 1997 by the National Education Association and celebrated each March, promotes the joy of reading and encourages children to become lifelong readers while reminding communities of the vital role literacy plays as a gateway to knowledge, creativity, and opportunity for people of all ages and at every stage of life. And whereas books expand our understanding of the world by introducing readers to new ideas, diverse perspectives, and cultures beyond their own while also preserving the stories and histories that help communities remember where they have been and imagine where they can go. And whereas access to books and strong literacy skills can change the trajectory of a child's life, expanding educational opportunities, building confidence, and creating pathways towards brighter futures. And whereas the city of Fresno is proud to be part of the Sanwaqin Valley's rich storytelling tradition. And through the work of local authors, poets, and Fresno's poet laureates, our city continues to nurture a vibrant literary culture that inspires readers and storytellers alike. And whereas Fresno's libraries, educators, literacy advocates, and locally and lifelong, excuse me, and locallyowned bookstores continue that tradition by providing children, families, and lifelong learners with access to books, resources, and welcoming spaces that nurture curiosity and discovery. And whereas when our communities and local leaders champion reading and expand access to books for all, they affirm the enduring power of stories to educate, inspire, and connect people. across generations, cultures, and experiences, strengthening the cultural fabric of our city and the Central Valley. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer and the Fresno City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of March 2026 as National Reading Month in the city of Fresno.

Miss Southern wanted to give just a few more comments really quick. So, I also just wanted to um thank our principal, Matt Feno um and our uh other administrators as well and our two uh staff that came instead of for we have another BSU adviser. She's our co-advisor. Her name is Tama Tatum. Um but she wasn't able to come today because we are teachers as well. Um and so we have Miss Rosco and then um also Mr. Smallwood, our home school leazison, our community schools um leader as well. Thank you and God bless you guys. Keep up the great work and I'll meet you all in the foyer out there. Thank you, Council President.

Great. All right. Uh, next ceremonial that we have is the Fresno Animal Center is going to present our pets of the month. Come on down. Well, thank you, uh, Council President, and, uh, thank you guys for joining, uh, today's meeting in memory of my dad. I appreciate that. And it's only fitting that we have a, uh, the pet of the month here today because my dad loved cats. Lots of cats. Uh, but we have a a oneweek old one week old will. Listen to this. Uhoh. Okay. She's squirmy. So, one week old Willa. Uh, she is at our animal center and um she's being bottlefed now, I understand. And uh we have a an adoption that occurs here every single month with one of our pets. And we ask for people to uh consider uh not just adopting one of these pets, but to go out to our animal center and to uh adopt one of the pets that that are out there. And uh unfortunately, we have an explosion in our animal population in our city. uh people that are not as responsible as they should be in terms of caring for animals, whether that's cats or dogs. And uh we our animal center, I will say, does an incredible job of rescuing animals from the streets, treating them. We have a veterary veterinary on on staff. Uh unfortunately, sometimes people get upset with our animal center

uh because they feel that maybe we're not doing enough. But I I just want to say thank you. You guys do an incredible job out there. And if not for folks like you, well, we wouldn't have Willa here today. So, uh, with that, I'll turn it over to you to say a few words. Thank you.

All right. So, yeah. Hi. Um, so Willa is a oneweek old kitten, and she is one of many unwing kittens that will enter the Freso Animal Center this spring. Um, so kitten season is the time of the year when adult female cats begin birthing their litters. While this can happen year round, it becomes more prevalent during the start of the warmer months. Um, so if you come across a litter, we ask that you first assess their condition. Um, if they look clean, wellfed, um, and not in immediate distress, um, it's extremely likely that their mother is nearby. Um, but if you find a litter of kittens that appear dirty, underweight, in distress, or are housed in unsafe areas, it is possible that those kittens were abandoned or orphaned and need human intervention. Thank you. Um, yeah, it is that she's a bottle baby. Um, which means that the animal center has to feed her regularly. Um, we do have a lot of really well-intentioned people in our community when they find when they find a litter of kittens that they think they're doing the right thing to pick them up and bring them into the animal center. But most likely the mom is around and um has just left temporarily. So, I think um what we're saying is if it if you can tell that they're clean, they've been taken care of, um leave them. The mama will be back. um because separating um babies this young from their mama, it's going to really have the worst outcome for them. So, um again, thank you to the staff for all that they do under um a lot of very difficult conditions of taking care of so many unwanted animals in our community and we appreciate all that you do and um we um we're hopeful that our our kitten season this year is is less than last year. That's um hopefully what happens. Um, mayor,

anything else? You sure you want the same kill me? Okay, I think that's it. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you, council. Fantastic. Our next uh presentation will be uh proclamation of Derek Frank's day. Come on down, Derek. presented by council president car or council member Carbassi and the office of the mayor and city manager.

Well, council member Carbassi and I and the city manager have the distinct pleasure of being able to recognize uh someone in our community that is very recognizable and that is Derek Franks. Uh he has served as the general manager for our Fresno Grizzlies for more than two decades and he's really been the the go-to person for all of us here at city hall. Anytime we're um inquiring about uh whatever it is to deal with the the Grizzlies, he's the guy that we go to. Uh and we have put a significant amount of money into that stadium and working in partnership with with the the Grizzlies. Uh we've put in new turf, uh new scoreboard, uh new speaker sound system throughout, new lights that are digital that uh not digital, I don't know what they call them, but they they

LED

LED they and they alternate during various um performances out there. Uh and it's and and we did all of the restrooms. We painted the facility, but we have put in several million dollars over the last few years and and rightfully so. We own that stadium. It belongs to the people of Fresno and we're proud of our Grizzlies and Derek has been the guy that has uh been there all throughout transition different owners uh going from unfortunately AAA to single A and uh he has had to deal with a lot of issues in our city and we're very grateful Derek for all that you have done for Fresno for the Fresno Grizzlies. you'll be missed. Uh, and I don't know for the life of me why you went over to Lee's Plumbing, but we'll accept you for that. Uh, but I do understand that Lee's Plumbing does HVAC work, and we're in need of an HVAC system at the stadium, so maybe you guys could donate that to us. Nothing's free. So, um, with that, I want to say, uh, thank you, Derek, for all of your work here. And I see you got your family with you. You guys should be ve very very proud of uh of your dad. Uh he's an outstanding individual human being and uh we we appreciate him very very much. Council member

Thank you, Mayor Council Member Carbassi. Yes. Through the good times, through the bad times, um you know, we have enjoyed a really great relationship with the Grizzlies and really a lot of it is a testament to Derek um his style, his personality. Um, and I think that that is a really important part. I think you've left big, very big shoes to fill, Andrew. Um, and um, you know, we certainly look forward with our long-standing relationship with the Grizzlies, but I know all of you guys have grown up in that stadium and in the Grizzlies. So, I know um, probably it's a little bit sad for you. Um, and you know, I know your dad's going to be a plumber, but No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I know. Um so but um you know you have to move forward and you have to go forward and do good things. Um and he's going to go make an impact in a completely different way. Um so Derek, thank you for all of the years and working together. Um obviously a lot of changes, but it's been a pleasure working with you and um I know you're not going anywhere. You'll be around the community. So I know we'll be we'll be seeing you in the future. Council member Kbosi. Okay, Derek, I want to just reiterate what was said and really extend gratitude to you and your family. I I you know, I have to admit I don't know a whole lot about baseball, but to me, you're Mr. Baseball for Fresno. And I'll tell you why. For over 20 years, you've dedicated so much of yourself and you've always been a gentleman. Whenever we come out there, we bring kids out there or we we sometimes we get this city suite that we donate to different groups and you guys have done an amazing job to make the entire city and the valley feel welcome at Grizzly Stadium. And that was a culture that you basically passed down to the entire organization. So yes, definitely big shoes to fill. This is the prime shining example. But um I really want to take a moment to hear what you're going you're going to say about your time there, but uh it's just gratitude, man. You're just a great guy, Derek. Um I am going to ask the one

question I think everyone wants to know. I'm blunt. I'm just going to ask it. So does the beard stay or is it like contractually obligated to be cut or what's No, I'm kidding. Um I do want to ask about your family. So what are your names? My name is Cal. Tell my name's Ty. Ty. My name is Joanie. Joanie. Okay, now you guys can tell us the truth. Remember, if he ever grounded you or anything, this is the opportunity to get payback. Is your dad a great guy? Yeah. Is he a great dad? Yeah. They're very smart. Great dad. No, I I don't doubt that. I don't doubt that. Thank you so much, Derek, for all you've done for Fresno. This is not the end of our relationship. You are connected to this community forever. And uh I'd like to hear a few words from you. Thank you.

Well, uh, thank you guys. Um, this is, you know, I never in my, uh, wildest dreams would have thought that I'd God dang it.

You know, I made I made it through a lot of the these with our team at the the in the stadium without crying. And uh, I think I it's all coming out now. But uh now look, I uh I had the time of my life running the Grizzlies and u I really can't thank you guys enough for the support of the team. I think um these things are really great in communities when they're uh public private partnerships and I think a lot of times in our partnership you guys probably felt like you were given a lot more than you're receiving. I think um and but look I think there's nearly 20,000 uh cities in America and 120 of them have minor league baseball and so I really appreciate um you guys the council I've had to come in here a bunch of times and ask for stuff and uh um and you guys have always been supportive of the team that the Chichansy Park is a crown jewel. It's uh um and and mayor touched on all the improvements that have been made at the ballpark to keep it um to keep up with the times and to keep up with Major League Baseball's new standards to keep us compliant to add all the new great amenities for this community and for our fans. And um I thank you for that because we uh we couldn't have done it without you. And I think um uh through the good and the bad, we we may not have had baseball had it not been for uh city of Fresno uh stepping up in the way that they did to support the ballpark, support the team. So, thank you council. Um thank you mayor, thank you Georgian, Mike, thank you for doing this today. Um I've had an awesome time and a great relationship with many of you guys and um uh it's been it's been awesome, man. And so, look, Andrew is um he's the guy for the job and um you know, but uh yeah, I'm going to be a plumber and plumbers are cool, by the way. All right. Um Le is a great company. We we've been partners with them for a long time. So, for me, it's it's a cool continuation to get to stay in Fresno, stay in the community, and do something different. And really, um being able to walk away from something that that I love and and that, um I'm known for. This the beard is

staying though, Mike. I'm too ugly to shave it. Okay. Um, and so, uh, you know, we're, um, we're blessed to have this team, the the the team here that's, we've got a bunch of my former colleagues here, my my close friends with the Grizzlies here today. Um, this is the best group of people that run a minor league baseball team in the whole country. We've got the best ownership group in the whole country that's ever existed. Um, we got the best mascot in the world, too. I don't, he's probably at a school somewhere today. Um, but Andrew is one of my my best friends in the world. He's been there 18 plus years. You've got um you've got a guy running that team that that loves it more than anybody and lives and breathes it and and um you know graduated from college, slept on my floor for the first few weeks and uh started from the bottom, worked his way up and and and has been through all the changes and all the things we've been through all together. So, uh it's an awesome group, awesome team. And I want to thank my family for, you know, it's a lot of long nights, long weekends, and I had to dress up as a hot dog uh in the early days and throw in the hot dogs in the stands. My wife still stayed with me even though I I did that. And uh so love my family, love all my colleagues, and I just can't thank you guys enough for for supporting me and supporting the team all these years. Thank you.

Thank you, uh Derek. And uh I am going to read the last part of this because I love reading these proclamations. Is it all right? I think the best deal that ever occurred at the uh at the stadium, I think the council will agree, is when we transitioned owners from the Baker Group over to Diamond Baseball Holding. And Council President Esparza at that time said he would approve it, the the transition under one condition, and that is if we got the owner suite. And we did. And uh Nelson, I I couldn't believe you said it at the time, but I'm I'm glad you did. So, thank you. But it says here, "Now therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry Dyer and the Fresno City Council, hereby proclaim March 19th as Derek Frank's day in the city of Fresno." Clerk,

thank you. Whereas Derek Franks is a respected Fresno business and community leader who spent 22 years helping shape the success of the Fresno Grizzlies and the continued vitality of Chukchansy Park. And whereas a native of Kingsburg, California, Derek Franks attended Reedley College and graduated from California State University, Fresno before beginning his career with the Fresno Grizzlies as an intern in 2004 and rising to serve as president and general manager. And whereas throughout his tenure, Derek Franks helped guide the Fresno Grizzlies through multiple ownership transitions while building the organization into one of the most innovative and communityconnected franchises in minor league baseball. And whereas working in partnership with the city of Fresno, Derek Franks played a key role in more than $15 million in capital improvements to Chuckchansy Park, including Fresno social, the splash park, a new video board, renovated clubouses, and a new and new batting cages that helped ensure the ballpark remains a vibrant civic asset for the community. And whereas under his leadership, the Fresno Grizzlies achieved notable recognition, including the 2015 AAA National Championship, the 2015 Pacific Coast League Executive of the of the Year Honor awarded to Derek Franks, and the 2017 Bob Freighus Award from Baseball America, recognizing the top overall operation in minor league baseball. And whereas Derek Franks and the Grizzlies became nationally recognized for innovation in minor league baseball promotions with the introduction of the Fresno Tacos alter ego identity in 2015, a concept that gained national attention and inspired similar alternate identities across the sport. And whereas throughout his career, Derek Frank strengthened connections between the Grizzlies and the Fresno community by supporting charitable partnerships, hosting major events at Chuckchansy Park, and

contributing to the economic and cultural vitality of downtown Fresno. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry Dyer, and the Fresno City Council hereby proclaim March 19th as Derek Frank's Day. Congratulations again, Derek, and best wishes on your new endeavor. Uh, our last proclamation of the morning is going to be support blue, uh, support blue runday, and that's also sponsored by Council Member Carbassi.

Now, Council President, I'm going to wear my support blue medal. However, compared to the belt, I don't know. Come on up. Hey, Matt and Vanessa. mayor, of course. Um, every year there is a fundraising event. It doesn't feel like a fundraiser because everyone's having so much darn fun. Uh, at Woodward Park, and that is to raise money for our Fresno Police and Fire Chaplain. Go ahead. Right here. And this is an organization that not only provides special help at a very critical time for members of the public, but also when you're a member of the fire department or law enforcement, you have to go to critical incidents. You have to see incidents where children are harmed or the elderly are abused and it's really difficult for anyone to see that let alone someone who even is in public safety and they help these heroes process the trauma they have to experience in that process. And there's so much more to what you do as an organization. But it's really important that we all come together and the community shows. I think there was over 4,000 people at the event that day. I mean it was packed. It was great. Um, Council Member Richardson, of course, was there and I think you did the run, which was great. Um, I did the walk, but uh, we we had a terrific experience out there. It's familyfriendly. All the different agencies were out there. I think the fire departments were out there, too, which was great. Our chief alorn and chief, uh, Casta were out there. And, uh, we just want you to know how much your organization means to the city of Fresno. Thank you so much. Pass it off to the mayor.

Thank you. And uh next year uh Council Member Richardson, when you go out there, maybe have your shorts a little longer. Those were pretty short shorts, those pink ones. All kidding aside, uh it's, you know, I spent 40 years in the Fresno Police Department and got to see the chapency grow from the ground up. And Matt, you have done an incredible job with the chaplency. Uh, but I can tell you when you're going through a critical incident and there's a lot of stress and and maybe an officer's been shot or they're in the hospital and and the family comes and uh there's just a lot of chaos and it is so good to have our chapency show up and bring a sense of of calm uh and to bring that that uh that faith side, the spiritual side that we all need in a moment of crisis. And I can tell you firsthand, I've I've been at that uh CRMC more times than I would like uh in the intensive care unit and and watching how our chaplain operate there is absolutely remarkable. And I know it is a calling from God uh to do what you do and all of the chaplain. And if it wasn't, you wouldn't be able to do what you do. And so I want to say thank you on behalf of the city of Fresno for everything you've done, not only for our police officers, but for our firefighters and for the community. Uh chaplain are the ones that do the notification when there is a death. Uh they are the one that respond in time of crisis to families. Uh whether it's a domestic violence situation, a child abuse, whatever the case is, or a child that maybe is unfortunately killed in a car crash, they are the ones that are out there bringing calm to the situation. And so there's a lot behind the support blue run, but it is the support blue run uh that supports you guys in terms of what you're able to do financially. So, we appreciate it so much. Thank you. Oh, our our Thank you.

And our police chief, why why are you hiding behind the scenes? Chief Casto, Deputy Chief Farad,

Deputy Chief Lannon, and Lieutenant Larry Bolan. Okay. You want to say a few words and then I'll give it to you Mindy first. I can't say enough about what Matt and Vanessa and the chaplency do for our officers, but I want you all to take away from here today what they really do for the community. We really appreciate them. We lean on them. But when times are tough in the community and a family has a tragedy, these are the people that are out there to support them and uh they carry that, right? You take an emotional toll when you suffer with people and hold their hand through suffering. So, thank you, you and your team for doing that. We wouldn't have a chapency anymore if it wasn't for Matt coming in and helping to get it back up and running. And I I can't say enough about how much he loves this community, loves the people living in it in our department. So, thank you all for sharing and the congratulations, Matt, today for his proclamation. Well, thank you for the for the kind words and it's it's always fun to be up here with friends and friends back here behind us who I know support us and and it's uh the real work is done by the chaplain like uh Chaplain Mary here that that show up on scenes and and we're just humbled to be be able to serve our city in this way. I'm a lifelong Fresno person and and will be a lifelong Fresno person and to serve along so many other lifelong Fresno people here is one of the honors of my life and to serve with my wife is is truly an honor. So, thank you, Chief and Mayor, and and our friends here today and the council. We we could not do it without you. So, thank you very very much.

Before we hand it off to the clerk, I'm just going to read two lines from here. Whereas, this event provides an opportunity for citizens to come together in solidarity, celebrate the collective strength of our neighborhoods, and demonstrate our appreciation for those who serve in blue and red. I added that part. Uh we the city we thank the Fresno police and fire chapency for their hard work in organizing this important event. Now therefore be it resolved that we may mayor Jerry P. Dyer and the Fresno City Council do hereby recognize recognize and honor support support blue run in the city of Fresno. And I'm going to hand it off to the clerk.

Thank you. Whereas the color blue is the symbol of unity, trust and dedication representing the strength and resilience of our community. And whereas the support blue run serves as a beacon of support and appreciation for the courageous men and women of law enforcement, their families, and all those who work tirelessly to keep our communities safe. And whereas it is important to recognize the sacrifices made by our law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line each day to protect and serve. And whereas the support blue run aims to bring together individuals of all backgrounds to honor the service and commitment of law enforcement, raise awareness for public safety initiatives, and promote a positive relationship between law enforcement and the community. And whereas this event will provide an opportunity for citizens to come together in solidarity, celebrate the collective strength of our neighborhoods, and demonstrate our appreciation for those who serve in blue. And whereas it is essential that we continue to foster a supportive and respectful environment for law enforcement officers, recognizing their invaluable contributions to the safety and well-being of all. Whereas we thank the Fresno Police and Fire Chapency for their hard work in organizing this important event. Now therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer and the Fresno City Council do hereby recognize and honor support Blue Run in the city of Fresno. All right, fantastic. So, that'll conclude our ceremonials for the uh for the morning. Uh we're going to move over to the uh we're going to skip over to the consent calendar for now. We will circle back to the 9:10 item. Um, sorry to keep staff waiting there, but at this point before we proceed with um, actually, you know what, we've, you know, we're not quite done with

everything. We have council member reports and comments. Um, apologize, council. Uh, council member PA, any report today?

Yeah, just a few. Council President, thank you. I want to start by thanking Council President Esparza and Council Member Carbassi for joining me to bring forth a resolution um to replace the street name of Caesar Chavez Boulevard and to restore those names back to their original names. Um this comes with a heavy heart as recent news that um came about yesterday um with Dolores speaking out and acknowledging the physical and emotional abuse at the hands of um Caesar Chavez. And I think what's important to note also is we can still recognize the the winds the successes that came from the United Farm Workers Movement. Um these winds are carried by thousands and thousands who all stood side by side during that time to fight for better working conditions for farm workers. And so while we acknowledge the movement and honor the memory and the fight that um is carried forward to this very day, um we cannot let the leader we cannot let the leader um get away with with what he has done to not just women but to minors. And so I want to um thank again my colleagues for bringing this item forward. Um we're going to be discussing this a little bit later today. Um, but I also want the victims to know that we stand with you. Um, whether it's Dolores Wuerta or any other woman who has gained the courage to speak out during this time. Um, it doesn't matter how many years have gone by, your pain and your suffering is still very real. And so, I want to let you know that I stand with you. Um, unfortunately, this has occurred um, one too many times in our own backyard. And so if you are a victim of uh physical

abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, um I I I know speaking out is hard, but I encourage you there are resources out there. If you are somebody that is struggling and needs help, there is help out there. Um, on a lighter note, I I I just also want to discuss that I recently met with a group of um, middle schoolers from Wilson Elementary School, and they brought up the the notion of how expensive child care is. This is a class project. Um, they were researching how expensive child care was, and they're advocating to raise money to buy supplies for uh, child care facilities here in Fresno. And I let them know that this is something that my office has already been looking into. As a new mom myself, we're spending upwards of 20 to 30,000 a year. We calculated it out for the next year on child care expenses. And so my office is doing research right now to see what other cities are doing out in the nation to address uh child care, the child care industries, whether it's how do we better support child care providers um who are predominantly women and women of color and how do we better assist our struggling families who are having to choose between whether or not to pay to send their kids um to child care versus staying at home and missing out on work just to care for their own children. So, this is something my office is actively looking into at the moment. Um, beyond that, my staff has been extremely busy helping me be everywhere at once and I want to thank my my my my team of strong ad community advocates who are with me every day. um whether it's helping somebody fix their broken sprinkler um or bring um new street trees or to fix their cracked sidewalks or to repave potholes. Um my team has been very active the last several months to make sure that we are closing as many constituent cases as

possible. So I'll just kind of summarize that and leave it there. Thank you, Council President. Uh Council Member Carbosi.

Yep. Thank you, sir. Uh, first off, I do want to just echo uh what council member PA had said, and I thank her and council president Esparza for partnering with me on the item regarding Caesar Chavez Boulevard and restoring the names of California, Ventura, and King's Canyon. Uh, we there's a reason why we call the Stand with Farm Workers Act, our farm workers are essential. We deem them essential during the pandemic, and if they were essential then, they're a heck of a lot more essential now. Um, and we'll talk more about that item later. I just do thank them in their partnership and we want to make sure we don't pull the focus away from the victims and the farm workers that matter to this community. Um do want to state uh uh there were a couple of great events uh over these last couple of weeks. The um Valley Business Awards, the Leon S. Peter Award, a very prestigious award was awarded to a Northwest Fresno resident, Ed Cashin. Mr. Cashion has devoted his entire life to this community. Um what most people don't know is the sheer amount of philanthropical work his family has done and the money they pour back into Fresno. And so it was just really nice seeing him and the first thing he did up there was was thank his wife and I got to say that that uh that's it was a very touching thing. I hope all of us when we get to that age we have our we're all capable like that and uh we have someone that's uh been with us that long. That's just it was just a wonderful thing and it was very touching. So I I do thank the Fresno Chamber for and the organization for putting that on. Uh I think a lot of us were there at that event as well. So congratulations to Mr. Cashion. Uh also uh we had our woman of the year event and we held that yesterday to honor many women in this community that have made a difference in our different districts in our city. Uh this year I did honor my chief of staff, Alyssa Stevens. Alyssa, I just want to reiterate on the record, uh, you have been an amazing, amazing partner in the work we do for District 2, especially with the case work. Uh, the number of times I've had residents say, "Oh, we want to make sure she runs after you." Uh, I've heard that many a time. Um, I know that you're more of a behind-the-scenes kind of person, but you are the rock for the district. And I

do appreciate that. Thank you. And I know the staff appreciates you, too. And speaking of staff, I do want to continue to thank public works, and I want to thank the parks department meeting regularly. We have a lot of really exciting projects we're trying to see to the finish line. Uh when it comes to parks, of course, the complete rebuild of the Milbourne Overlook, which is going to turn it into a area where people from all over the community can go and see the river and there's no charge for it and you can picnic out there and you can see the views. It's going to be great. Mayor and I were out there for the groundbreaking and it's going to open in May. Um also Stallion Park in the western part of our district. Uh long overdue for some improvements. We got some money in the last budget and those are in design and we're getting closer and closer for folks in that community to get that park redone. Um as well as public works, a lot of new roads that are going to be constructed, the realignment of Hernand Avenue, get to get rid of the bottlenecks. Um work on Shaw Avenue and a lot of the neighborhood concrete work people have been waiting for. We're doing it continually. The speed humps that are getting installed, that's happening now all over the city, but especially Northwest Fresno. So, thank you to the departments for their continued partnership. We're moving pretty fast. And with that, I appreciate the council members for their comments earlier. Meant a lot to me. Thank you so much, Council President, for the kind parting gifts. I look forward to working with you and the rest of my colleagues for a lot of great wins in 2026. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Council Barius.

Thank you, Council President. Um, I think it was yesterday. Yes, yesterday I had a press conference to address some of this misinformation and claims made by the applicants in the reszone application that we'll hear this afternoon. And during the press conference, I indicated that I had received one voicemail message from Kevin Ramos, the vice president and chief investment officer for Bus Oats. Um, and that was a misspeak. I actually received three voicemails from Kevin Ramos uh prior to today's council meeting. Um, of course, if I would have responded to those voice messages and met with Mr. Ramos on behalf of the applicant, it would have been a clear violation of the quasi judicial matter that um, they have falsely claimed uh, we have violated by having a town hall meeting in West Fresno. Um, as legal council for the city has determined, this matter is a legislative matter and we actually are allowed to meet with the public and the applicants at any time. um as that is our task under law and under our procedures and responsibilities as council members. But I did want to clarify for the record that Mr. Kevin Ramos, the chief investment officer and the applicant did leave me three voicemail messages, not just one prior to today's council meeting, of which I did not respond to any of them. Additionally, I want to thank the administration and our parks director uh in preparation for the upcoming Easter break. Um all the improvements at Roing Park have been executed, including all the budget um improvements that we approved this year. So, thank you to the administration for that. We now have new park benches, um new structures, um a whole lot of um new work and ground covering. So, I'm anticipating a record amount of families using the park this year for Easter. Um, I know there's still some other projects being completed on today's agenda. Our brand new restrooms that may be approved

for construction. We also have the pickle ball courts to complete and some picnic shelter areas. But in the meantime, all the brand new benches and the stuff that our families use for Easter are ready to be utilized. Lastly, as as indicated in yesterday's press conference, my office has been hosting town hall meetings annually. Um to this day I have hosted nearly 300 of them in my seven years as a council member. Next um week we'll begin the annual town hall meetings on the budget. Every year prior to the mayor proposing his budget, my office hosts a town hall meeting in every neighborhood in my district to hear directly from residents on what they would like fixed in their neighborhoods with this upcoming budget. So on Monday the March 23rd, it will be at Adams Elementary. On Tuesday, March 24th, it'll be at Gaston Middle School. On Tuesday, the 31st of March, it'll be at Vipes Lounge in the tower. And on Thursday, April 2nd, it'll be at Tyogga Seoia during Rhob Day. All these uh public town hall meetings on the budget will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the evening, and we'll provide food. So, thank you again for the public for engaging this process, and I look forward to um my final budget as a council member. Thank you all. All right, Council Member Bane.

Thank you very much, Council President. Esparza, just a few comments to our report. Uh the month of March is probably one of the best uh month for me as a council member. I had an opportunity to go out to the community in particular to elementary schools to read across America to the students at Beras, Fenture Creek, Kawwa, and Jackson Elementary Schools and uh to present certificate to some of those students. And so it is uh in a sense, you know, going back to what I've done the last nine years as a school board. And so I really enjoyed and I want to thank the students for welcoming to their classrooms to read to them. We recently added a new crosswalk on Selma Avenue to improve safety for our seniors at Bren Haven Senior Living. And uh this is right across from the new Target on Clovis and Taller Avenue. And I want to thank public works for that uh safety crosswalk. I have several community events coming up. The first in partnership with parts department will be this coming Tuesday, March 21st, starting at 5:00 p.m. at Aayer Elementary located at 5272 East Low Avenue. and we will be gathering and uh getting information from the community regarding the addition of a gym as part of the Southeast Fresno Sports Complex. So, please make time and being there again this coming Tuesday, March 21st at 5:00 pm at Ayer Elementary. I will have a town hall as well on March 31st at 5:00 PM at the Roosevelt area hosted by the Senior Citizens Village. Uh everyone is encouraged to come and to give input. Uh this will be the first of many uh town halls, in fact four that my office will be hosting across District 5. So stay tuned for the meeting times and places for the uh last three. While we proudly hosted our women of the year

celebration at city hall yesterday, I also had the opportunity to attend DEA de la Muhare celebration hosted by Familias and Aun. I have the privilege of recognizing some incredible women who consistently show up, lead and serve district 5 with dedication and heart. And congratulations to all those women who gave not only their time, effort, and energy, but their ideas to making district 5 a better part of the city of Fresno. And finally to echo some of my colleagues uh comments, I am in full support of renaming Sizzy Chavis Boulevard and restoring the previous names uh Kings Canyon Ventura and California Avenue as a former farm worker and I did work on farms um during the summer as a uh high school students and college students and also a current farmland um owner. I want to be clear that this is not about forgetting the impacts of farm workers but uh it is their contributions and the dedication in fact to our daily lives not only here in the central valley but across the United States and at the same time we have a responsibility to ensure that the naming of any public infrastructure reflects the needs identity and values of our community as of today. So, I look forward to having this conversation with District 5 businesses and constituents to ensure that we are heard and we support them throughout this process. That's why I have Council President Esparza. Thank you.

Great. Uh, Council Member Richardson.

All right. Thank you very much. Beautiful day in District 6. Thanks again everybody who came out to the support blue run. Uh, I'm always flattered when there are thousands of people out there to watch me throw up in public. Uh thanks to everybody who came out to our quarterly town hall on uh March 4th. We had like 65 people out there. It was great. A lot of questions answered. Thank you to PD, the heart team, public works, public utilities, uh everyone who came out to support and be the subject matter experts and give people answers to the questions that they have. Um we've got something going on in District 6 right now which is exciting and we've set a template for it that hopefully it can kind of spread across the city. We're working with the local high schools to get the high school students introduced to employers to give them summer jobs. When I was in high school, I had a summer job every year before I could even drive. It's a great benefit to a kid to be able to graduate high school and have some sort of work experience, have had a boss, have learned how to manage their money, even if they're pedalling their butts up and down the street to get to work and back like I was. So, we're working to make sure that happens. They meet the employers. Uh the parents are encouraging the kids are getting everything filled out with work permits and all that. and the schools have been a great partner for that. So, u if you're interested in that in your area, please get a hold of us. I think we've set a good template for it and we're looking forward to a lot of kids hitting the workforce and getting some good life experience this summer instead of uh I don't know, video games or ebikes or whatever else they're doing. Uh Maple and Beheimr, if you live on Maple and Beheim, expect that we're going to have a community meeting shortly about the development going in on the Northeast corner. If you know, you know. If you don't, uh you're still welcome to attend. Speed bumps. speed bump application period opened in March in your neighborhood. If you feel like you need a speed bump or you want to find out if you can get one and you decide that amongst your neighbors it is a responsible time to lower the speed of the cars in your neighborhood, that period is open. Get a hold of your council member. If you're in D6, get a hold of me. We can figure out how to get you that paperwork and get you on your way uh to slowing down and making your community a little bit safer.

Um, and then district 6 will remain in support of naming uh Caesar Cho Chavez Boulevard something different. I don't think that's changed uh despite the change of seats last year. And council president, that's all I have. Great. We're going to come back to council member Vang. He had a a update. Thank you. I have a correction to make the meeting with the parks department regarding the gym as part of the southeast uh Fresno Sports Complex. The date is March 24th. March 24th at 5:00 PM at Ayer Elementary. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Council Member. All right. Go to Council Vice President Maxwell.

Thank you, Council President. Just a couple of uh updates and reflections on the past couple weeks. Uh last week, I did have the honor of taking a couple of dozen Hoover High art students to the Fresno Art Museum. We're trying to get more young people um excited about the arts. Not a lot of folks, especially at that age, have been introduced to the arts, have made it over to the Fresno Art Museum. And these are some of the most talented students I've come across in Fresno. Their art is beautiful. They're very passionate. They want to stay here and give back to the community. Most of them had never been to the Fresno Art Museum before. So, we had the privilege of taking them on the Fresno Hop Trolley um and spending a day at the Fresno Art Museum. So, thank you to everybody at the Fresno Art Museum that accommodated us, provided the tours. It was really a transformational experience for a lot of these high school students who are looking to get involved in the arts and to give back to the community but are not always sure where to start. So, I really appreciate everybody's help on that. Last week, I also visited Holland Elementary School. We uh took part in Read Across America there. We had a opportunity to meet with Ampact Literacy Program to see about some of the great work that they're doing they're doing to improve literacy. um across Fresno Unified. Um if you were here earlier when I gave out the proclamation, I talked a little bit about some of the efforts that we've been undergoing to increase literacy amongst the youth in Fresno County. Um specifically here in the city of Fresno. The first thing that we did were the little free libraries. If anybody's ever seen those in a neighborhood, they look like little mailboxes, but they're full of free books. We are able to put up several of those in every single neighborhood in district 4 so that no child ever has to walk more than five minutes in our district to access free books year round that we do replenish on a regular basis. The second thing that we did was um help with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. We were able to

help raise around half a million dollars here locally to ensure that every single child in Fresno County age zero to five is able to receive free new books every single month until they turn 5 years old. So that by the time they enter kindergarten they have 60 books at their home library. This Friday we'll be introducing a new initiative called the council members book club. We're going to be making sure that you know Dolly Pardon tackles zero to five. We want to now start tackling six to eight year olds. And so we're going to be going to every single elementary school in District 4. Some of you came out to our uh holiday book raiser last December. We raised almost 2,000 books at that charity event. A lot of folks came out to Club One Casino to support. We're going to start going to all the elementary schools starting with the first graders. And if anybody has ever been to a Scholastic book fair growing up as a kid, how exciting that was to have all those cool books and all the swag come to your local library. If you're like me, you couldn't afford any of it and so you just read your friends books when they were done. We're going to have a free Scholastic book fair for all the first graders in District 4 who want to be a part of that. So, they'll be able to take home three to four books, coloring books, bookmarks, colored crayons, pencils, markers, um, and become part of the council members book club and to take that commitment to try to read as much as possible and then whichever school is able to read the most books, we're going to u reward them with a pizza party at the end of the semester. So, we're really looking forward to that and we'll be launching that this upcoming Friday. Last week, I also had the opportunity of supporting our local Girl Scouts of Central California. Um, I committed to buying a 100 boxes of cookies before I realized how much a box of cookies cost. It wasn't as much as I It was a lot more than I remembered it being. So, I told

my wife the honeymoon's going to have to wait, but we kept three boxes to ourselves. The rest we're going to be distributing to different groups over the next couple weeks. um some really amazing young women who are trying to raise funds to go on outings to enroll in more leadership courses and they were building exceptional skills out there when it comes to customer service, interacting with other people. I was really really impressed with this uh group of young women. Um yesterday I had the honor of presenting District 4's 2026 woman of the year to Megan Velasquez. She is the executive director of Valley Caregiver Resource Center. Um, this is a a pivotal nonprofit in our community that serves mostly older folks who have some sort of dementia or Alzheimer's and are having trouble receiving the care that they need. This is not something that we think about often unless we know somebody that is experiencing Alzheimer's or dementia or some sort of cognitive issue. And I think we take for granted this service. But truth be told, there is not enough service to go around for that population here in the city of Fresno. And Megan Velasquez and her team have done a tremendous job of caring for these folks and opening an adult daycare to provide resources and help for this older generation of people. So, I just want to say congratulations uh Megan Velasquez, our District 4 woman of the year. And lastly, on a personal note, um I did want to share that uh my wife Fernanda and I did have our marriage convalidated at St. Anony's Church this past Tuesday. Uh that is something that we've been looking forward to for a very long time. I've been in the OCIA program, uh which is the Order of Christian initiation for the past year. um where I'll be receiving my baptism, confirmation, and first communion on Easter vigil. Um but I just want to thank Deacon Edgar and everybody at St.

Anony's for making that such a beautiful ceremony and uh my wife who never watches these meetings. I'll give her a shout out anyways and just say uh happy anniversary and I love you very much, Fernanda. Thank you, Council President.

Thank you, Council Vice President. uh very heartwarming and congratulations uh to you uh both again. Um so that's going to bring us to to me. Um and you know very similar to some of my my colleagues, I I do want to say as well that the you know the allegations against Caesar Chavez are you know they're heartbreaking that that he harmed women and girls and um these are obviously allegations that are serious and very troubling and they demand accountability which is part of what we're going to see I think later on today. uh we have to, you know, be consistent and clear that no individual is above scrutiny. Uh and the experiences of those who have come forward have to be taken uh seriously. And again, for that reason, today we'll be holding a a special meeting to discuss restoring the original names of uh the roadways that are currently designated as Caesar Chavez Boulevard uh to revert back to their original names. Um, so, you know, again, thank you to my colleagues for for co-sponsoring and uh for the general support I think that that's been echoed uh out there for this particular type of resolution. Um, yesterday we celebrated the uh 2026 women of the year uh here at city hall. Every council member and the mayor had their honores. Uh so it was a total uh of nine extraordinary women whose leadership and service continue to strengthen our community. Uh and in particular I want to congratulate Rhonda Dick who was our uh district 7 woman of the year. Um the recognition really really is deserved and you know Rhonda's work with the uh Jackson Community Development Corporation has uh made a lasting impact. Um was honored to celebrate her as well as as well as all the others. Uh with respects to uh town halls, it is sort of that that season right now as you've heard from some of my colleagues. Uh my office hosted our u our annual series of spring town hall meetings this week um over at Raul Elementary and uh Fresno City College.

So I want to thank of course all the residents uh who took the time to come out and department directors who attended the uh the town halls. Uh we had a a strong turnout uh at each uh meeting and again I appreciate residents taking the time out of their their evenings to share their thoughts and ask important questions and um you provide the kind of engagement that helps helps us better serve the district. Um I also uh attended the Valley Business Awards last uh last week. I joined the Fresno EDC. Um I'm on the the board at those awards to celebrate uh several outstanding local leaders. Uh so congratulations uh again to uh Mr. Ed Cashion uh to Liz Mabane of uh Total Concept uh to the California Teaching Fellows organization and to uh Jasmine Ree of uh of Crybaby Cookies on on their welldeserved uh recognition. uh these businesses are are helping to drive our our local economy forward while simultaneously investing uh within our community. Uh and lastly, uh just it was it was great to tour the Dakota, which is a housing project uh that's coming up in my district at Dakota Dakota and Blackstone. Uh this development is going to bring 114 homes to uh the Black Blackstone corridor. Um and that's going to include units that are supporting veterans and and their families. So, if you're driving by Blackstone and Dakota, you'll see uh that building has now gone vertical. And it was it was great to see the progress as we move towards uh a ribbon cutting and opening. Um that's going to conclude my uh my remarks and works for the council. Did want to uh offer the floor to the the mayor and the city manager if you had any remarks.

Thank you uh council president. All good. Make my remarks from the dis uh today. Uh but uh I want to say thank you to the council. appreciative of uh again uh adjourning today's meeting in remembrance of my father. Secondly, appreciate the city council um taking on the initiative of renaming uh Cesar Chavez Boulevard back to Ventura Kings Canyon and to California Avenue. Uh I support that move and glad to see that the council is doing that so quickly and as soon as it gets passed at the after the second meeting and gets to my desk uh I'll sign that immediately so we can get moving on those signs. We do have the signs in uh storage and uh we will have to order about 20% new signs uh but we should be able to get those uh at least the installation process uh in uh in April. So appreciate the council doing that. Uh secondly, attended a groundbreaking last week for Zatar that's in the Galleria downtown. Encourage everyone to go uh take uh take some enjoyment there of that Mediterranean food. I was joined by Council Member Richardson at that groundbreaking and they replaced Georgees and they had been there for about 40 years. Uh so uh this is a good move for for downtown Fresno. Also had the opportunity to recognize two women yesterday. Kim Dilldy and Natalie Capable who are co-CEOs of the California Food Bank. And that food bank is responsible for providing food uh for those who are um food have food insecurities throughout the valley. And so we're very grateful to be able to recognize them yesterday. And uh tonight at 6:00 be doing a ribbon cutting at Lexus over on Palm 7201 North Palm and the Lexus dealership in Fresno had

moved. And then tomorrow uh morning be um actually breaking ground on Senior Binyan Cottages. And this is the first um first affordable housing development on faith land in the city of Fresno under a Senate Bill 4 that passed and it will be providing 21 units of affordable housing on that property for those that are 62 years of age and older. So look forward to doing that uh tomorrow morning. And then uh lastly uh my administration we've been uh every single day over the last two weeks uh involved in budget meetings with various departments. I think we have probably somewhere around 30 plus 35 budget meetings. It seems like 100 but it's about 35 budget meetings. And I think you know uh we started out um when we provided the midyear at about $23 million in the red projected for FY27 number that number grew a little bit uh to about 29 million. Um but uh I'm just proud to say that we're working towards bringing that back into a balanced budget when we present it to the council in May. Uh but it's a lot harder this year than it has in the last couple of years uh because we don't have the onetime funding as you know the American Rescue Funds, CARES Act and the like. So it's a little bit more challenging this year. And I want to say thank you to all the departments that are here for coming forth and bringing uh some creative ideas on their cost uh cutting efficiency measures uh because we we are asking from from that from departments and there will be an impact on some services throughout the city. So look forward to working with the council and be briefing you soon. Thank you.

Thank you council president. don't have a whole lot other than to say um thank you to uh council member Karbosi um for his role as council president. Um obviously the administration spends a lot of time um regarding the agenda with the council president and so a lot of um late night conversations on agenda items and and um how to place things. Um so thank you for all of your effort. um you know uh I have a new my old seatmate back. Um so thank you Nick for your role as my seatmate and um looking forward um to the rest of the year and working with you and I don't have anything um other than that. Thank you.

All right. Thanks uh city manager. All right. Uh as I had said earlier, we're going to skip ahead uh from the timed items over to the consent calendar. Uh before we pass consent, we do need to take public comment. Um I've got a few I've got several cards here. We've got uh quite a few that are either consent and or close session. So I'm going to I'm going to do both. Uh we're going to open public comment. And this is for if uh you want to comment on a consent item, even if it was pulled to contested, that's uh your opportunity now as well. Uh in addition to to close session, because I have several of those cards. So uh if you haven't filled out a card, doesn't mean you're you're not in. um please fill one out and or at the end I'll call for any kind of residual um folks who have not spoken yet. Uh first on uh first card I have is Dolores Aisha. Dolores, are you with us? Okay. Uh next card I have is for Renee Campos. You have three minutes. Hello Anelise. Hello Miguel. Hello Nelson. Hello Nick. I'm here to address the agenda items on the public access restrictions and the proposed use of identification screening technology. We are discussing whether to public sorry whether access to public meetings will remain open or become controlled. Let's be clear when governments began deciding who is allowed to enter who is allowed to be present and how access is granted. That is not where the constitution is tested. The Brown Act protects open access. No preconditions, no barriers, no

gatekeeping. If access becomes conditioned in a any way, identification, screening or technology is not policy. This is control. This is not policy. This is control. This is voter suppression through structure. I stood by through pressure, scrutiny, and I believe what was deliberate targeting. I did not I did not remove it did not remove me. It built me. I'm not here as a candidate. I'm here as a voter. The Constitution draws the line and the line is non-negotiable. You are enhancing safety. You're not. You are redefining access and the public can see the difference. For the record, my name is Renee Campos. Thank you. All right. Going to our next speaker uh was commenting on a close session item. Sam Frank.

Morning, Council President, Council Vice President, members of city council, and other cities uh staff here today. Uh my name is Sam Frank. I'm a former president of the Freso City Employees Association and current employee of the Freso City Employees Association. I'm here speaking on behalf of our members and our board uh who brought forward uh litigation that you'll be discussing in close session. Um we uh we feel that uh our cause was from the very beginning a very righteous cause. It's a very necessary cause and you're seeing the result of our actions and uh and our members uh money that was spent processing this cause and now you are in a position to make a decision. Um my dearly departed father who passed away in 1976 when I was still a boy um he once told me Sam if you ever find yourself in an argument and you're in a hole first thing you need to do is stop digging. And that's what I'm asking here. When you're in close session, you will find that you are in a hole. Now, you didn't start it. You inherited the hole, but you're in it. You're in a very deep hole. And so my question to you is do you want to at this time take one of two courses of action that are going to be available to you? One of course is one that I advocated for and we went through the process and that was mediation but under advice of your council which uh has never panned out for you. They all they've done for you is cash your checks to the tune of probably $2 million. If we spent one, you guys paid for two so far. And they've gotten to

the point to now you're paying $45,000 of interest every single month on this judgment. So, you're in a hole. What do you want to do? Um, right now, if you want to get a settlement to take care of this person in the audience right now, remember, this settlement is about her pain and her suffering. Do you want that to last for another year or two years because you're kicking the can down the road? Do you want to pay more? There is no light at the end of that tunnel. There is no light. There isn't even a train at the end. There is no end to that tunnel. You go in that tunnel, there's no coming out. And history will judge you by your actions. History will judge you because history is just starting. You want to talk about black history? There's a city attorney, now a county attorney, who called that gentleman right there, a millennial piss ant, as reported to by our very honest Georgian White, city manager. Sam, Sam, as much as I like where this is going, thank you. But I I gotta I gotta cut you off now. Uh I I I gotta cut you off.

Thank you, Sam. Uh so our next speaker is going to be John Shatz. This is on actually on an item, the the trolley park item. I don't know if John's here, but that was removed from the agenda by staff. I guess they weren't quite ready. Um so I don't know if John is still here or not. Yeah. Uh, so if you want to comment on a different item, but this item is no longer on the agenda today. Um, do do we have a date for that staff? City manager, we will be back at the um first meeting in April, the latest. That'd be April 9th, I believe. I if that's I haven't looked that far on the calendar, but I believe you.

Yeah. Okay. Um, yeah. So, if there's another item you want to speak on that's on on contest uh on consent agenda, but the item was removed. I don't know if you he still wanted to say a few few words on it. All right, come on down. There's a chance we may hear it next week, city manager potentially. We're we're evaluating. Okay, got it.

Uh my name is Jonathan Shots on behalf of uh Ari Schultz Construction. I understand this one was tabled uh but might as well say my piece if you came up from Orange County. Um item 2 I trolley park lighting and shade structure project. Uh the staff recommendation was to award it to geometric construction. Um however city cannot and should not award the project to anyone until there has been a determination on Ari Schultz's appeal to the city's decision to deem its bid non-responsive. Although Ari Schultz's bid is lower than Geometrics, on February 25th, 2026, city staff determined Ari Schultz's bid to be non-responsive for an unfounded assumption which can be addressed during the hearing. The city's letter stated that Ari Schultz has a right to appeal this decision and provided the city's rules and procedure for how to do so. We submitted a formal appeal on March 2nd addressing each of the city's arguments. under the bid documents and resolution number 20003-129, the city required to give Ari Schultz a formal hearing on this appeal. Although we submitted this appeal on March 2nd as well as a letter from our attorney on March 18th, um we have not this hearing has not been scheduled and we have not heard any other determination. Uh yesterday morning we saw this on the agenda for award. Um appreciate you guys tableabling that till next time. Um, under the city's own rules, the city cannot award the project until a formal hearing with Ari Schultz and the protest has been addressed. To award the project before this appeal is determined is completely undermines the entire purpose of the appeal process. Um, and suggest that you delay the award, which I appreciate you guys doing and we can address at the next at the hearing with us. Thank you.

Sorry, Council President. Real quick, sorry. Were you saying RA or RH? Re Schultz re instruction. Okay. Thanks. All right. Thank you. Um I have a card for Pastor Isabelle Vela. Um the item is not necessarily listed, but if you're here and you have a item you want to speak on on the consent agenda or the close session calendar, uh come on down.

Got it. Okay. Thank you for for clarifying. Appreciate it. that one over here. Um, I have Ari with us. Okay. Hi, council. Uh, good morning. Thank you. My name is Ari. Uh, my family owns a house in District 2 that I grew up in. Um, but we now rent it out well below market rate to families in Fresno. It has been wonderful to watch the neighborhood grow in the last 20 years. Uh I myself currently stay in district 6 to care for my grandmother who has al Alzheimer's dementia. I didn't bother to reach out to Karbasi on this issue because I haven't in the past felt heard on u matters such as these. Um but I did reach out to Nick Richardson. So thank you so much for pulling this item. Um I'm speaking on AB481, the Fresno Police Department military equipment report. There's some places where it still does not comply with state law. Um, I wanted to also emphasize that the community input provided at the upcoming meeting FPD is holding next week is required by law to be part of meaningful engagement and review by elected officials in considering how to adopt or instruct the department to comply with the law, support community safety, and civil liberties. Here are some of the flags in the review that I have so far. One of them is there's no reporting on the purpose of the use of military equipment as required by law. Um, AB481 also requires a summary of purposes for use of each type of equipment, which the FPD report does not do. We urge you to incorporate this in your AB481 reports to comply with the law and more important for the public and city leaders to understand how, why, and where the equipment was used and so we can better understand what particular preventative measures we could take to reduce the amount of military equipment or situations where police officers have to respond to situations that could

otherwise be mitigated. Um the other issue is drone use policies. The use of drones described in the annual report has virtually no restrictions. As the policy states, situations include but are not limited to the list of situations in a manner that respects the privacy of our community. It's ambiguous and subject to interpretation. There's a couple legal and procedural rules for this the use of this equipment. For drones, this section references general order 525.09 and Fresno UAS admin order 629. These documents are not visible anywhere on the PD website. Um, and this is important not only for transparency but also for accessibility which we've been hearing a lot about. Um, and there was some reports uh like 525.09 that we could not be could not be located through any search. Um, so we have some questions around like retention of drone footage. Uh, it states only that retention will follow an established records retention schedule. Um, so it needs to state directly how long that drone footage um is going to be kept. So, it's not classified as evidence um or if so, how long that evidence is retained. Um there's several other issues that I emailed Nick Richardson about that I won't have time to speak on. Um some of them include the partial reporting on the fiscal impact of 481 um and only the partial partial report on rifles. Many other police departments have a more extensive report. I'm happy to speak to council members individually more about the issues. Uh the last thing I'll say is the report was really well organized um and had it was easy to read. Thank thank you for your comments. And just to provide uh some clarity for the for the public, uh this item 2 on the uh on the equipment, uh it it was moved to general administration, uh the 3A, so I shouldn't necessarily be hearing these these cards right now, but I didn't want to keep folks waiting. Uh and it was originally on the consent agenda. Um so I think it's it's fair we we hear comments now. Uh but the when we

hear the item uh in the afternoon, it will that will be a a meeting hearing. There will not be any vote uh on that actual item today. Uh we will bring that back next week with an actual approval item. Uh so folks, I mean I'm giving some opportunity to comment on it right now just because I don't want know people were confused about it. Um but we will have another opportunity to actually engage that item because it's its own standalone item now after the changes to the agenda. City manager, do you want to add anything? No, I think that's accurate. Uh, you'll be presented the report today. There will be the public meeting here in council chambers on the 25th at 6:00 pm. Uh, the the public meeting that PD is holding and then it'll be back before you on the 26th. So, no vote today.

Yeah. So, we've got uh we've got kind of a hearing on it today later in the afternoon. We got a a meeting with PD on Wednesday and then the actual vote would be Thursday. Just for clarification. Uh our next uh next speaker is going to be uh D Barnes. Good morning, council members. Um I'm here speaking on the close session item and like Sam said, I really hope that you guys will not keep digging this hole. I think you've had some bad um advice and lies have been told and I'm talking outright lies. Um this is a problem that's been going on in the city for um at least 20 years with this particular issue and I was one of the ones that really helped convince our association that we needed to do something about this. Um, it is very sad that I warned numerous leadership people in this city, council members, mayors, city managers. Um, George Anne White I've had conversations with about this and the fact that the city did not do anything for years. Um, one of the employees that caused a lot of this, not only is still here, was promoted over the years. Um, this is, we have a long history of racism in this area and at the city of Fresno. We've all seen it. Um, Mayor Dyer with his tenure at the police department knows

how many cases have been filed over there. And you guys need to, you know, it breaks my heart that the people that are actually responsible for this are not the ones that pays. It's the the taxpayers and the current city um employees that are now looking at a huge problem because this is a huge amount of money. And it's it's unfortunate that we don't have um a system where we can force those in leadership to have insurance to cover bad decisions. And there were a lot of bad decisions made over the years. Please do not make another one. This needs to be taken care of and the city needs to move forward and make sure this kind of stuff does not continue to happen because this is big. This is important. And I'm really sorry that it had to go this far and that the price tag is so bad, but please don't make it worse. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, next speaker is going to be Sonia Davis. Um, hi, my name is Sonia Davis. I'm a member of the community. I was born and raised here. Um, I have parents who worked for the city of Fresno and retired. Um, I'm here in support of settling um and not appealing the case in favor of Miss Wilson. And I have a statement. Racial behavior was openly directed at both co-workers and members of the community by Howard Lacy, who is paid to serve and currently still employed. This conduct was carried out comfortably and without consequence. No disciplinary action taken at any point. When the behavior was finally brought forward seven years ago, the person who was subjected to the re racism, Leeia Wilson, was instead disciplined and ultimately terminated. Even more concerning, multiple supervisors and administrators not only ignored the behavior, but actively worked to protect the offender, misrepresenting the situation and disparaging the victim in the process. This response raises serious concerns about the values and accountability within this organization. At best, it reflects a tolerance of racism. At worst, it suggest active support and protection of it. An organization funded by the public has a responsibility to uphold fairness, integrity, and respect for everyone in the community. The people whose tax dollars fund these positions deserve far better. Any acceptance of protection of discrimin discriminatory behavior must

be addressed and ended immediately. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is going to be Tasha Jones. Good morning. My name is Gina Kaine. I'm reading this on behalf of Latasha Jones. Good morning. Excuse me. Good afternoon, council members. Standing here today in this building where we gather every year to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I feel the weight of what this moment represents. We celebrate his legacy on these very floors, his courage, his insistence on dignity, his demand um the institutions uh confront and justices not only look away and today the legacy is being tested right here in Fresno. This is not just a legal case. It's a reflection on of the lives experience and reflection of what black employees in the city have said for generations that discrimination doesn't only exist in history but in books. It exist in the hallways, offices, and the system. Today, those words are not just mission statements. They are mirrors. There are also practical hurts. Every year, a matter like this continues. It becomes more costly emotionally, socially, and financially. Delays uh can compound compound harm, deepen divides, and make healing even further away. We cannot celebrate Dr. King in January and forget these teaching in March. We cannot um give proclamations about

justice while overlooking moments that call us to show it. As you deliberate today, I hope you hold close this mission. Fresno has promised its people and the legacy we honor and this very building our community is watching. We hope that when integrity and accountability remain at the center of who you say you are. Thank you. Next speaker is going to be Brian Smith. How's it going, Nelson? Glad we got to meet yesterday. So, on the on the thing that's going to be on agenda today, and quite frankly, I think I've emailed quite a few of you about the issue between Analisa, Miguel, Nick, and Mike here. I highly think that stopping someone from exercising their right, their first amendment right to sit there and come into a public office as a registered sex offender. You're sitting there telling me that you look down on anybody that's sitting there in that system, but you'll welcome open arms with somebody that's a rapist or a murderer into your churches. So, here's the thing. when it comes down to it, right? Not everybody's the same. I'm sure you've made mistakes in your past, too. But that doesn't mean you can sit there and judge anybody that's not in a city council. When it comes down to people that are in your public, why don't you actually sit down and have a conversation with them before you start judging them? Because quite frankly, I'm sure most of

you have probably has some secrets that you don't want to share. So when it comes down to it, don't try to sit there and infringe upon somebody's rights to sit there and come to a meeting. To sit there and just observe. I haven't really said anything. This is my first time coming here. And quite frankly, I'm ready to get the hell out of Fresno. I mean, you can sit there and shake your head all you want, but I tell you right now, we don't have the attitude back east. So when it comes down to it, I quite frankly think that the city sits there and needs to actually address the things that are actually going on and assess the people that are actually in office before they sit there and actually look at people and try to look it down on them. So when it comes down to me myself, I barely leave my house. The only enjoyment I get out of going out in public is basically riding my motorcycle and that's about it. I haven't been able to find anything to where I can get a decent job because why? I'm overqualified, but I'm a poss because of my background. So, you tell me what I'm supposed to do to be able to be a productive member of society when I got people sitting there looking down on me with smug faces. So, you tell me. That's all I have. Thank you. Uh, our next speaker is going to be John Kroger. John, city council members, mayor. Uh I'm uh here for a slightly different issue having to do with using AI facial

recognition software especi especially in context with the uh cameras going up around the city. U AI is not 100% foolproof. AI hallucinates. Anyone who's seen much AI art can see spare fingers, spare arms. So AI can imagine connections that do not exist. It's usually accurate, but lots of things are usually accurate. And our question is what do we do in the cases that it's not? Uh, and it's kind of worse if it isn't if it is accurate because combined with the ability to more or less surveil the entire city at once. This means AI can follow you around the city. They can follow me. They can follow you around the city. It's like having an a uh a private investigator walking two or three steps behind you making notes on everything you do. Uh that's not comfortable for me. I don't know what you got what you people feel like. Uh let's see. And so all someone has to do is do the search. Do an AI search your face and they'll follow you around. they'll know what you've done. Uh this is especially interesting because you have to be very careful about who has access. Uh because hey, if someone doesn't like you and they think it's useful to figure out where you've been for the last month, they can send that to your enemies. The best defense is to not put up cameras. Probably past that point, but it never hurts.

And to not collect the data because someone, if not you, is going to run an AI search over that. I mean, this is the direction we're headed here is surveillance state. So, uh, so please be very careful in your consideration of this stuff. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next uh speaker is going to be Melanie Lamp. Melanie.

Again, Melanie was the last card I had for either consent agenda or close session. So, if there are further comments on either of those, please fill out a yellow card.

Hi. Um, I'm here to speak to AB481, which requires transparency of the city's budget for Fresno Police Department. I'm glad it was pulled from consent and I hope there's meaningful engagement with the public with time taken to listening listen to what Fresno's are saying. So this law in California law requires transparency in what weapons are used the frequency of how that they were deployed and the purpose of that deployment. So that is important that we get since it's already in the law and hasn't been followed for the last three years. So I hope that does happen and I hope there's time to actually take that feedback and consider it and act based on that. And it would be really important to also understand the geographical locations of the use of those items. So that needs to be included as well. Thank you. Okay, next card I have is going to be Brandy. Oh, thank you. Uh, first I am continuing um uh volunteered on behalf of Ari to continue her public comment as there was not enough time allotted. um she did not have enough time to be able to cover these. So in continuation of what she what uh Ari addressed um Fresno Police Department decommission noteworthy uh that Fresno Police Department decommissioned all 38 of his existing drones in 2025 because they were not working and reduced the use of drones in

2025 to uh 293 times down from 1,923 times in 2022. FPB uh any new drone acquisitions will come from the existing police budget from the or credits for swapped out drones. Even if FPB plans to pay for new military equipment such as drones from the existing police budget, it must return to the city council with proposed policy uh fiscal cost and quality of for each type of equipment. only partial reporting of physical of fiscal impact. AB481 annual reports must state the costs for each type of military equipment, including acquisition, personnel, training, transportation, maintenance, storage, upgrade, and other ongoing costs. Uh section 70724, emphasis added. The acquisition costs for new equipment and annual manual maintenance costs for each type of equipment is provided. But there is no information on annual personnel costs for any existing equipment which is a major cost is personnel cost. The report recognizes that personnel costs are more than 80% of the budget. This report must include a rep a report on the personnel cost for training, deployment and use of different types of military equipment officers have reports on use of files. Like many other agencies, uh, Fresno Police Department does not appear to report on deployments of rifles unless a department issued rifle was fired. However, a number of agencies have interpreted uh the requirement to report on use as any deployment of rifle. This includes San Diego Police Department, Oakland Police Department, San Die Santa Police Department. AB481 makes no reference at all to use of force and only use. C. Attach legal memo. approved Cobra dose by ACLU on that that was sent to you. As elected officials, you're required to determine whether each type of military

equipment identified in that report has complied with the standards for approval. Those standards are defined in the state law and includes cost effectiveness as well as whether the policies will safeguard the public's welfare, safety, civil rights, and civil liberties. The uh the the law specifies a meeting where the community can discuss, ask questions, provide input, and we hope that you go to that meeting. um and and get and hear the input. I also want to end by um supporting the ladies who spoke here and Wilson and that we need to have accountability um for this and ensure that not only that but ensure that this does not happen again.

Thank you Brandy. Next card I have is Kalia. Kalia Good morning, council members. My name is Kalia and um I came here today because I have an ongoing situation. Um since I just want everyone to take a moment and think about the soaring heat that's about to happen in Fresno being 91 degrees. Since January 29th, notice of violation um was posted to my home um as a uninhabitable or more or less less desirable um unit to live in. Due to a unpermitted sewage trench by my landlord, we have been facing a constant effluent back backflow in our toilets, seeking into our rooms and in up the carpet hallway and into the padding. My daughter is a disabled minor and she has educational and medical support that comes to our home. I have had to cut her supports because of the temperature being 76 to 80°. We have found black mold in our windows again. It also has grown into her closet. She has been forced to go to emergency care more than twice, including myself as an immunompromised individual. I have done all the administrative steps that were supposed to be required through the city code enforcement department. The individual assigned to my case made a slur towards me. I filed a complaint and requested a senior supervisor which has not been provided. We have not been able to relocate and to find housing that was affordable because all the money I get for her goes to her. When I inquired about some type of

emergency assistance through city through the code enforcement, the individual stated that there is no support. I have escalated to attorneys. I have escalated to city um members and as well as um district members. My godmother sits with me at my home periodically, but she can no longer come because of the 80° with the black mold in the window and that we have found in my daughter's room. I attempted to try and get the property manager to assist with removing all these fecal matter and urine, saturated porous carpets, renovate, bio remediation. He refuses. The individual has slow walked this process and I'm asking council today to deem my home uninhabitable so that me and my daughter may be able to find someplace that is safe, non-toxic and she can breathe. Thank you. Okay. Uh so I'm out of yellow cards. Uh if there's anybody who hasn't spoken on either consent agenda or the close session agenda, that's what we're that's what we're on. Uh now will be your last opportunity to uh speak on close cons close uh session items or consent agenda items.

Hello council. My name is Alfred Alreddy. Uh I live in the Tower District. I am here to speak uh on item 200. I know we're going to be meeting on it. I'm glad we're not voting on it. as I do not consent to it and feel that it's extremely irresponsible of the council and the Fresno City uh police department not share these reports with uh the community um especially the military equipment usage uh that's happening there um just to quickly go over there's certain questions I have one number one like why are uh why are there 5 160 assault rifles in usage by the police department itself how many active police officers do we have on the streets? Do we actively need a military um presence in the streets? Like why are we militarizing our police department to such a degree? 76 drones that are in usage, 94 flashbangs. Like what are we preparing for here? Why are we gearing up our police in such a way? I think it's extremely um irresponsible to not have a discussion with the community and the citizens about why these things are there. And I'm glad that on the 25th there will be a public meeting on that. Um, just to quickly touch on some of the discussion about the change of the name from Caesar Chavez. Uh, I feel if if we're trying to honor our farm workers and touch on the people who really put work into the movement, um, let's stop by honoring those who were kind of looked over all this time as Dolores was speaking about holding this in for 60 years as to not, you know, take away from the movement. Maybe that would be a great uh way to honor not only the people that are uh in have been invisible, but the hardworking women in the movement. We maybe we should just go ahead and rename it Dolores Werta. That'd be a great way of honoring all the farm workers and kind of uh giving her her flowers as she has like I said held us in for uh 60 years. My quick question to the council is why is it

that when a man of color does something like this or allegations come up, they're so quick to make sure that um you know he's held accountable when we have a president in the United States who's done all the same things and has been noted but none of our council has quickly been there to denounce or uh you know make sure that he's held accountable for his action. So, I think it's just time that we kind of look over ourselves as our elected officials and just see how we can do better by our community. So, thank you again. Any last speakers, consent agenda or close session agenda?

I actually put my Hello. I actually submitted Hello. I submitted a card. I was just 50/50 on deciding if it was the clo well the topic. So I think it is after he commented that. So thank you all council members so much. I'm Desire Desma for everything you guys do um for really excited. Thank you Brandon for getting I'm in district 5 currently. I've been in everyone's district either working or living here as I've grown up and was also raised in prisoner. So uh thank you for the sidewalks they got fixed finally. And then that is great news u Maxwell about the free book fairs. I was like yes that was me too. They were it wasn't fun to look at them when you didn't have when you didn't have the mean. So that's very exciting news. I would love to see that in district one, two, and three as well if possible someday. Um, okay. So, my topic today, what I wanted to go over was the renaming of or touch on the renaming of Caesar Travis Street.

I I sorry, I I did have your card and that that is a whole separate item. He he would he commented on consent items and then he kind of spun off a little bit. Um, but but this time is for consent. We're going to hear this in the afternoon around 3 or thereafter, around 3 p.m. or so. Oh, okay. So, then I'll do every card. Yeah. So that that's going to be a special meeting because I I saw you guys were all agreeing to change the name. So I had just wanted to touch on which I can do at three. That's fine. Just who I wanted to name after and it was so Yeah. Thank you. Sorry about the confusion. I guess I'm going to get extra time, but thank you guys.

All right. Any further uh comments on the consent agenda or the uh close session agenda? Yeah, the the Caesar Chavez renaming item was going to be a special meeting this afternoon. All right. So, um, for close session, I just like, um, I kind of agree with what the lady said about people having insurance maybe when they get elected in these positions cuz if we end up getting sued, maybe I should have something like that. So the city's not like liable for decisions or bad decisions or that um people make because like I said you guys are not lawyers and so yeah it's I know you guys are able to pass things and get this money spent but it's really not your money. Not like that but Oh yeah. So to keep us out of close session I just like to say that again. Yeah. And I think they're telling you what you should or shouldn't do. And I mean, you don't listen to us anyways. So, I don't know. We'll see what you listen to. Good. Thank you. Any uh last comments, consent, the consent agenda or close session agenda? Seeing none, we're going to go ahead and close public comment for consent, contested consent, and the close session agenda. That will take us to the consent agenda. Um, is there a motion to approve the balance minus the contested consent?

I want to speak on AI. Is this two separate things?

We have a motion. I'm sorry. Public comments closed. Have a motion from uh council member PA, second from council vice president on the consent agenda. Any uh opposition to the consent the balance. All right. Seeing none, the consent is passed. Uh it is 11:18. Hopefully that took care of some of the folks who uh were here. here. I saw a lot of folks here for for close session and consent. Um, we need to hear a uh a time-sensitive uh close session item. So, we're going to go back kind of do the bare minimum um in terms of close and try and get back out here as soon as possible. I don't know if we'll be out here before the lunch hour. Uh just kind of depends how the discussion goes. But, uh city attorney, if you'd read the uh close session items.

Thank you, Council President. Today in close session, we have item 5A, conference with labor negotiators, all units listed on the agenda. Item 5B, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, Reagan versus City of Fresno. Item 5C, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, Torres versus City of Fresno. Item 5D, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, Newman versus City of Fresno. Where is it?

Item 5E, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, city of Fresno, fire and police retirement system versus the city of Fresno. Item 5 F, conference with legal council, existing litigation, Breneno versus City of Fresno. Item 5G, conference with legal council, existing litigation, Park 7 LLC and Land Value Management LLC versus the city of Fresno. Item 5H, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation. Michelle versus City of Fresno.

Item 5 I, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, Wilson versus City of Fresno. Item 5J, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, one potential case. Item 5K, conference with real property negotiator, property 508-030- 48 ST, H Hearnden in Broly. We may have reportable items after close session.

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All right, we're back into open session. We uh we're out of close session right now. We still have to go back later. Um, but uh I'll entertain a uh a motion. Council President, I'd like to make a motion to reconsider the agenda. Second.

We have a motion to reconsider the agenda. Seconded by Council Member Richardson. Uh any uh opposition to reopening the agenda. Item passes 621. Council member Bang is a a no vote. I'll entertain a further motion. Council President, I'd like to make a motion to table the four o'clock public hearing item today to a future date to be legally uh noticed as required for the public. And this motion is being made as the council has received significant opposition from the community members of the area upon the request of the attorney general's office and at the advice of our legal counsel. We have a motion.

Second. Okay. Is are there any uh opposed to do we need public comment on the reconsideration item? Okay. All right. So, actually before we'll have to remake the motion, but um apologize. So, we're going to have public comments on this item and this item is to u reconsider or to to continue. President, it's a procedural motion. I don't think Oh, procedural. Okay. Got it. Okay. So, is there any opposition from the council to

Can you clarify just I I want to be very clear because language matters. I believe there was also other significant information, legal information we considered in close session as part of the decision that wasn't just disclosed. I can't unfortunately go into detail, but there were other legal considerations we considered as well. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Uh council member this this you council later. Okay. All right. So, we have a an active motion on the uh floor uh to table an item. Any opposition to tableabling this item. All right. Seeing none, that passes 70. Item has been tabled. Any further motions while we have the agenda reopens?

Council President, I'd like to make a motion regarding the 3:55 p.m. Central Southeast Area Pacific Plan. Um, I know we received a letter requesting between 90 and 120 days to examine the content before a city attorney. The minimum amount of days being requested is 90. Do you feel like that is sufficient time for your office to look at this matter? Yes, council member or council vice president. What is 90 days from today? It is June 18th. Okay. So, I'm curious if my colleagues want to move this to June 18th at this time. um or a date uncertain.

So I have council member Vang punched up.

Thank you very much, council president. U this item was moved uh was tabled to today uh from our last council meeting. I think the people in Southeast Fresno has waited long enough to uh hear this item and to have a vote on this item. I understand that there are some legal ramifications involved and there's been some ask to move this item as stated uh 90 to 120 days but again um my position is I'm ready to move forward with this item and I believe the people in southeast resol and district 5 is ready to hear what the council has decided on this item and so uh I am villainly against u moving this item to another time frame. Thank you. Council President, was there a second to that motion on the floor?

Not yet. I wanted to hear from a couple of my colleagues whether they'd like to see it go to the June 18th thing.

Yeah. Um I have to be very careful because there were things that were discussed in close session that I don't know if I'm authorized to share based on the discussion and the analysis we had in close session. I think anything short of that 90-day mark could potentially put us at legal risk. I'm not willing to do that, especially since we just got a took a bath with a with a uh ruling against us for $15 million. So, I'm going to be very very conservative moving forward on these legal issues. So, I'm going to my recommendation is nothing short of 90 days. Okay. I think um feel comfortable making a motion to continue this item to June 18th at um would we have to do a time certain as well?

Yes, please. Okay, let's continue it to the same time as we have it noticed for today then please. Second. So, we have a motion. We have a second for continuation of the Central Southeast plan to the council meeting June 18th at 3 is it 3:55 p.m. Is that currently? Yes, that is accurate. We actually have two times on here. We had 9:20 and then 3:55, but we'll do just a solid 3:55 p.m. uh for for that day. Um, president like to uh ask for a roll call vote. Okay, we'll do a roll call vote. Clerk, call the call the role in this, please. And would you sorry, would you repeat the motion again before we all vote on it? City clerk,

there's a motion to continue the item to June 18th at 3:55 time certain. The motion was made by council vice president Maxwell and seconded by council member Richardson. Council member Perea, no. Council member Carbassi, yes. Council member Aras, no. Council Vice President Maxwell, I. Council member Vang, no. Council member Richardson, yes. Council President Esparza, I.

There being four yay votes and three nay votes, the item passes. Okay. Uh any additional changes to the agenda? Yeah, council president. I'd like to make a motion to uh consider 2L as in Lima, which was previously moved to contested. Right now that we have the agenda back open. Okay. And I'd also make a motion to approve. I'll second. Oh, no. I'm sorry. That's district 5. Council member, if you want to do that one, I'll second the motion. So, we're the motion is to put 2L back onto the consent agenda. Well, we passed consent, so we just consider it now. Oh, I see. Yeah. Yeah. Just finish it now before lunch. Oh, okay. Yeah, we we we can we can hear that out. Okay. So, um we have Oh, so your motion was to approve 2L.

Yes. Oh, got it. I see. Oh, because you couldn't. Well, let's let's close the agenda back up. Okay. Yeah. I think that's where the city attorney was going. Okay. All right. So, uh now that we have some modifications and amendments to the agenda, I'll make a motion uh for approval of the agenda. Do I have a second? Yes. Second. Yeah. Motion in a second. Any opposition to approval of the uh to reapproval of the agenda? No. All right. So, we have

51. Uh the motion passes. So, we uh are back into the meeting. Uh you had a request to do 2L. All right. Um go for it. Motion's approved. 2L. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second on 2L. Is there any opposition to 2L? All right, seeing none, that passes 620. Um, and that will take us to lunch. We will be back here at 1:45. Yeah, 1:45. So, we'll see you all then. Thank you.

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All right, we're going to uh readjourn this uh this meeting. Um I was going to jump into contested consent, but I almost forgot. We still do have one timed item, the uh the 9:10 a.m. item. Is staff ready on that? Okay, great. Well, you are you are up. So, this 9:10 a.m. item hearing to receive public comments on the 2025 housing element annual progress report.

The microphone's not on. Testing. There we go. Council President Esparza, members of the council, Sophia Pagalotus with the Planning and Development Department, and I'm presenting to you this afternoon the housing element 2025 annual progress report. Give us a minute. The housing element is an essential part of our city's planning process. It's an eight-year plan required by state law to assess and address the housing needs of our community. The plan ensures adequate land is available for housing and includes goals and policies that support safe, decent, and affordable housing for all economic segments of our community. However, it's important to note that while the housing element provides the framework, it does not mandate the city or county to build housing directly. Rather, it asked the city to do its part to facilitate housing, which includes things like streamlining land use processes, applying for funding, partnering with affordable housing developers, and conducting outreach to ensure Fresno residents are aware of opportunities. The annual progress report, or APR, as I'm going to call it, is a requirement from the state of California that tracks our housing development efforts. It provides a detailed breakdown of our city, the city's progress toward toward meeting our housing goals based on our housing element. The report is submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development or HCD to ensure we remain in compliance and eligible for critical funding opportunities. In short, the APR helps us measure success and identify areas where we need to improve. What you see

on the screen is a clip from the summary page of the APR, which is an Excel spreadsheet in a format that's provided by HCD. The housing element APR reflects the main goals of the housing element shown here. Whoops, skipped. Let's get back there. So, those are the seven goals of the housing element. And these goals create the framework for the 37 implementation programs that are contained in the housing element. The status of all 37 housing element programs is included in table D of the housing element APR. In addition to tracking implementation of the programs in the housing element, the APR also attracts housing production and compares it to the RENA, the regional housing needs allocation. The RENA is required housing capacity that every California jurisdiction must maintain through vacant zone land. The city's reena is 36,866 housing units of capacity for the 8-year period of the housing element, which extends through 2031. This is not a construction goal. It's a capacity goal that's achieved through zoning. Table B in the housing element APR tracks the city's housing production compared to the arena. As of the end of 2025, 12 and a half% of the arena has been realized with a total of 4,621 housing units constructed. Here's a more detailed breakdown of the city's housing production over the last year. In 2025, the city completed planning applications for over 3,000 housing units, issued building permits for over 2,000 housing units, and

construction was completed for over 2,000 housing units. This is a 23% increase over 2024 and the number of low and lower income units constructed um increased by nearly 50% over the previous year. So there were almost 400 affordable housing units constructed in 2025. Here we go. As an example of a completed affordable housing project is the Clinton Avenue apartments that opened last year on the southwest corner of Clinton and Blackstone. The local housing trust fund provided 3 million in gap financing for the project which consists of 78 new affordable deed restricted apartments. The local housing trust fund also helped finance the purchase of LA aca mobile estates near Blackstone and Sierra to stabilize this 56 unit community and also designate 17 deed restricted units to ensure affordability for lowerincome households. In addition, HomeKey Plus is funding 17 new units of permanent supportive housing for veterans in this community. HomeKey also boy this thing is jumping around. Uh, HomeKey also funded the construction of 95 units of permanent supporting supportive housing for youth and individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness at Sierra Crossing located at Sierra and Pulk avenues. And what I am talking about is the image on the right on this slide. Right? In addition to building new affordable housing, the housing element requires the city to create more zoning capacity in what are called high

resource areas. That is areas with high incomes and school performance. The text amendment that allowed residential development in office zones approved by the council in November of 2025 created over 5,000 units of housing capacity in these areas. Another way to provide housing opportunity is through home buyer assistance. In 2025, the city was able to help 50 families realize their dream of home ownership through the mortgage assistance program funded by permanent local housing allocation funds. Conserving older housing stock is also a priority and 56 households were assisted through the CDBG senior exterior repair program. Finally, the city has worked hard to incentivize the construction of accessory dwelling units or ADUs through its provision of pre-approved plans available to the public at no cost. In 2025, 41 ADUs were completed and 179 more were in the pipeline. This is more than double the predict production from the prior year. In order to solicit public input for the housing element APR, four community workshops were held. To promote these, flyers were placed on fax buses, posted on social media, and included in several email blasts. A multilingual educational video on the APR was posted on the website, and a notice was placed in the Fresno B advising the public on this public hearing and ways to provide comments. The public input we we received expressed interest in the city's new streamlined approval processes, a desire for more home ownership opportunities, interest in repair and replacement of mobile homes, and interest in allocation of resources for individuals at risk or experiencing homelessness.

As we enter the fourth year of the housing element cycle, we will continue to implement the 37 programs according to the milestones and timelines set out for each affordable housing projects that are planned to be completed in the upcoming year include the Mosaic, Devisadero Commons, and the Dakota. Staff recommends that the council hold a public hearing to receive public comment and accept the 2025 housing element APR so that it may be submitted to HCD by the deadline of April 1st, 2026. Thank you. And that concludes my presentation.

Right. Thank you. I've got uh Council Member Richardson and then Council Member Vang punched up in that order and then uh so we'll hear a few comments from the council and then we will go out. Ultimately, there's no vote on this today. We're just doing a hearing. Um, so we'll do all the public comment after these comments. Sounds like comments. All right. Yeah. Okay. Do you mind hanging out for just a second, Sophia? Appreciate it. Um, page three of the APR. Yes. You don't mind just flushing. Do we not still have it up? You've got a print out there. Um, just for simplicity, let's consider all of those individual tables from top to bottom, A through G.

Yes. In A, table A, it says that the total housing application submitted was 1489. Um, which I see once it's broken down in the ministerial and discretionary approvals, it's it's 1469 and 20 checks out. However, it does say on the subsequent uh two, three slide, four slides later that 2003 plus building permits were issued. What's what's the delta there that we're not seeing? Are those citydriven projects? Is it something that that didn't get an application that we built anyway? What's Can you explain that difference a little bit, please?

Yes. So, you're seeing the 14 on the uh summary page. Is that correct in the Yes, ma'am. Uh the top of page three, you'll see the the table at the top there says uh 1,489 total housing applications submitted. Mhm. Is that talking about from the developer or was that hey, I'd like housing. Uh this is this is um housing applications submitted. Um and this is just a summary. the 2,00 units um that you saw are are building permits whereas these are applications submitted and

from a potential resident not from a builder. Is that is that what I'm understanding? It's not like an application a permit application or anything. Uh these are all applications. So I'm I'm not quite sure I'm understanding the question. Director Clark, do you get where I'm coming from here? Yes. Okay. So two things. So, we're talking about a period of time January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025, right? Yes.

Um, not all permits that are or applications that are submitted actually finish. So, we h they're there they're there going to be here are how many applications were submitted? How many units by anybody by the city, by a developer, by a single family homeowner that stuck an ADU in their backyard? How many total units were submitted? Separate complete question. How many total units were permitted and how many total units were completed? Some of those may be the same but generally not. So it is it is confusing to the public but this is unfortunately the table that we get from the state.

Okay. So it's more of a temporal difference. Maybe I apply in December of 24, it gets approved in 25. It makes that table. That makes sense. Okay. That's what I was looking for. That's it. So, so some of those building permits that are totaling 2,000 were um applied for and in the process prior to 2025.

Fantastic. Uh the second question I had is what is the assessment timeline when it comes to uh the high resource areas? How often is that assessed and and who's doing that? So, um, the state HCD provides maps that we apply and so it's continuous. Basically, all of the C's, um, or many of the city's housing element programs um, are to provide a certain number of units in high resource areas and that area is determined by the state. Okay. Okay. And two of the categories that fit into that as high resource uh I believe included uh average income of the area, some sort of AMI calculation and educational opportunities.

That's right. This is asking for speculation and I apologize and you can say no comment or I don't know and that's totally fine. Um would this in theory be adding to a draw away from Central Fresno Unified Schools and into maybe one of the other three school districts that we have in the city? we would be able to see that very clearly by looking at the overlay of our school districts on those resource areas. Okay. Um so it's quite possible that there's um more of one school district than another in each of the the resource areas. Yes. Okay. I appreciate that. That's all I had. Council President, thank you C.

Thank you very much, Council President. Um and good afternoon Sophia. Thank you very much for the presentation. Just a few questions. Uh under the regional housing needs allocation uh the terms were used extremely low income, low income, moderate income, above moderate uh income. Could you give me a uh I guess perspective in terms of what uh those terms encompass in terms of the dollar signs? Yes, I can tell you in terms of percentages and and if I need actual amounts, I I may need to call upon my my colleagues in the housing division, but very low income is 50% or less of AMI. Low income is 50 to 80% of AMI, which is area median income, I should explain.

And then moderate is 80 to 120. And area refers to is it the central valley, Fresno, or the state of California? I believe it's uh county specific. Is that right? County Fresno. Yes. County, Fresno County.

Thank you very much. And the um community engagements um there's four community meetings, social media post, as you mentioned, flyers on facts and website with video and emails. How is email uh communicated uh to the to the community? We have been building an email list um and um individuals that want to opt in that have perhaps attended one of our meetings or have received a service may opt into our email list and and we build it that way and I don't know if that answers your question. No, it does from from the list that was collected from prior interests or engagements.

Correct. Okay. and uh the four community meetings uh there's one in um I believe northwest uh the Pineale Community Center, Tetsu Center and Legacy Commons in South uh West Fresno. I know that this is the annual report. Every year we have to do this from 2023 to 2031 for next year and in following years I would ask that we um perhaps do one uh of these community meetings in district 5 perhaps Mosquetto Center. Noted.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you very much, Council President.

All right. Great. Appreciate the comments. Uh we're now going to open the public hearing for this item again to receive public comments on the 2020 uh five housing ele uh elements uh the annual progress report. Um so I have some cards. Let's see here. But these are not Oh, actually we do have one. Uh our first one from Brandy. You want to come on down for the housing elements uh report. Is Brandy with us? Oh, okay. Let's see here. I don't think I have any other cards for this one, but uh if you would like to speak, please fill out a yellow card. And uh again, these are to receive public comments on the housing element annual progress report. All right, Gabriel, come on down. Uh my name is Gabriel Loausano. Uh community member. Uh couple things. I in my household. I'm having housing problems. But one of the things is is my ex-girl I have my ex-girlfriend's grandson living with me and her daughter. She's addicted. Has mental health problems. I've worked mental health 16 years. Part of the problem about all this housing, you're wasting your money because uh you have to have programming and security around it or these dealers pray on these people because on district 7 and it's nothing against the council members and in district one she was housed in both and she was taken advantage and I moved her in with me and she's working. You need you need to factor that in or you're wasting municipal money. I think it's very important that you have programming security. It's almost separating addiction from mental health. If you don't have that, you're

wasting your problem, your money, because she probably caused about three to 400,000 uh dollars worth of damage in one unit, the other one the same thing. So you need to have the programming again in security because these these what happens when you I used to work as mental I used to do the outreach and take them to these houses different levels of housing. They know how you guys are going to vote. They know how you guys think and so they pray upon these people and it just takes one person to disrupt the whole millu structure of that housing. So it's very important that you guys take care of that. And let me tell you something it, you know, I don't take stuff from nobody. They got pretty close to where, you know, I I grew up in the streets and stuff. And so that's that's you can talk all the housing you want and depending on the different type of housing. Me and Mr. Barza worked on the workforce development on Caesar Chavez across the street. I got 20 atrisisk kids with his direction. It worked. They had program security and if you act up, you're out of there. So you need that. You need to factor that in and I think it'll be a lot better. It worked in Logan. I've been associated with a lot of this type of housing. If you don't, you're wasting your money. All right. Thank you for everything. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Gabe. Uh, is there anyone else who would like to provide public comments? I don't have any more yellow cards, but you're welcome to come on up uh for public comments on the uh housing element annual progress report. Well, it's nice that you let them know probably because you wouldn't have them waiting. If you had to be waiting like us, it would really suck like for public comment and stuff like that. But yeah, so however, whatever they say, but I have issues with some of the things and they have a lot of discretion how they spend this money. But that's it.

Thank you. Any further uh public comments during this public hearing on the housing element annual progress report? Seeing none, we're going to go ahead and uh and close the public hearing and that'll conclude the item. Again, there's no vote on this today. It was just to receive uh public input. So, thank you all. Um we're going to move over now to uh what was item 2 is now item 3A. Um this is the uh to hear a report on the renewal of the FPD uh annual military equipment use report. So I know we have some folks here to to hear that.

Good afternoon everyone.

Hello chief. I have a sort of a brief presentation and then I don't know how much more in depth you'd like to get because as stated before we will have a community meeting Wednesday evening next week and then of course we'll be back before you on Thursday. So just a a brief overview. Um this started out as an assembly bill 41 but it's actually codified now under government code 7070. It's to ensure, of course, transparency, oversight, and community accountability with the acquisition and use of military equipment as it's defined by California law. The military equipment defined in California law, some of it is a little unconventional, but that is the government code definition of it. Um, just last year, Fresno Police Department responded to 378,000 calls for service in person. We actually received over a million calls for service, but we physically responded to 378,000. Some were telephonic, some were canceled, some were transfers. And during that, there was very few instances in which military equipment was actually used, a very small percentage. But when it was used, it was used to protect lives, contain critical incidents, and deescalate dangerous situations. And many of it is goes along with our number one priority, which is preservation of life. Um, we received zero public complaints uh in our complaint system throughout the department over the year. There were no unauthorized uses reported to the department and all deployments were documented, audited, and fully reviewed under our department's policy and the law.

Uh, drones UAV. Really quick, are you going to use the PowerPoint? I'm sorry. I have a brief synopsis, but we can go through that after. Why don't you you want to talk about your brief synopsis? I don't know what's in the PowerPoint, but it's teed up for you. Okay. It's It's pretty lengthy. Okay. Oh, this one's pretty lengthy. Yeah. Okay. We'll leave it up to the council. Um I guess continue and then they can tell you whether they want to do the link. Carry on the way you are for now.

And so the number one uh item of military equipment that was used last year were our drones and there were 293 uses. It was our largest operational category. They were for crime scenes, active after the scene, uh search and rescue type things, lost children, um SWAT disasters, and just a lot of different calls that were active in progress with perimeters and suspects that were um in neighborhoods hiding from police that we were trying to uh apprehend. The purpose um was listed for each category in our report. One of the earlier speakers mentioned that it wasn't in there. I just wanted to reiterate for council that the purpose is listed for each uh category. And then also was mentioned that there was no policy that they could find limiting drone usage. Actually there is and it's available at fresno.gov on our website and it's policy 3439 and then policy 450 talks about retention. So there are very strict retention guidelines and very strict usage guidelines for drones and all across the board for our our police department. In addition to the actual calls where these items were used, um we attended 37 community events and we get a lot of requests for the community to bring out our Bearcat or to do a drone demonstration and things like that. So that's a part of the public engagement piece of the military equipment. um 16 times the armored rescue vehicles actually responded to a call for service. And our thankfully our EOD or our um explosive robots were only used about four times last year um to examine a possible explosive device. And less lethal systems are the shotguns that we carry in each of our vehicles for a less lethal bean bag round. And those were used uh about 10 five times. Flashbangs three times and 40mm launchers which are kind of a another less lethal round were used 10 times. Um a very small share of the department's annual budget is spent

on military equipment. Most of the acquisitions were done with grant fund and very small amount is used to keep the equipment maintained annually. No major acquisitions are anticipated for FY27, just maintenance and consumable replacement. Um, this year we uh decommissioned 38 of our aging drones because we've actually been ahead of the game in drones and so we're actually to the point where some of them are so old they're being decommissioned and 38 of them were decommissioned and we received uh some trade in value from SkyO to um purchase our drone first responders that are just that we just got approved by council. All the operators under AB41 or government code 7070 have been trained either with postcertified or other required training for all of this military equipment that's covered in the report. Um regular proficiency, legal updates and annual qualifications are required and we monitor all that and every deployment is again subject to internal review. Uh and although there's a maybe a misnomer that this equipment is um offensive in the sense that it goes on the offensive, it is not. It is absolutely intended to save lives of our officers and the community when an emergency really hits. Whether that's the bearcat that's needed for some kind of a barricaded subject and armed subject to save lives, or it's the less lethal rounds when there's a criminal barricade and officers are unable to necessarily go hands-on, but it's a less lethal means of containing or apprehending a suspect. So, that's it in a nutshell, but I'd be happy to go through the PowerPoint. It's just rather lengthy.

Yeah, thanks, Chief. Um just uh a couple of quick questions. Um so you described the the you know the number of times or incidents um some of these were used. What uh what percentage of that would you say were SWAT encounters or SWAT calls? Um I believe we had about 12 SWAT deployments this year. But I mean like what share 15 calls actually 15 SWAT deployments. What share of the of the uses were involved uh with SWAT? Every one of those SWAT deployments involve military equipment and that's because it's primarily the Bearcat, our MATV. Those are deployed on almost every SWAT call. Are you talking about drones specifically, council member, or just military equipment? Just the military equipment generally. Yeah.

Yeah. Every SWAT call would require some some form of this equipment. So So it's safe to say is is it safe to say the SWAT calls are the sort of primary driver of our use when it come you know generally? Uh except for the drones. Yes.

Except for the drones. Yeah. drones are more general. Speaking of the drones, I had a a town hall last night. I had a bunch of residents come. Some of them showed up here today as well. Um, and one of them had a good question about uh just, you know, our response on Fourth of July. Uh, it's getting getting hot, so it's a reminder we have summer coming. um the the new drone technology that we're since we're decommissioning and uh and getting newer drones, will any of that be applicable towards enforcement uh with respect to like illegal fireworks such and stuff like that? Uh they could be certainly used for that. Yes, we're already starting to plan for Fourth of July. We've been meeting with fire on that. It's a obviously a very distress scene time for a lot of our residents as you have heard.

Yeah. Yeah, it is. and Captain Hughes did the best he could yesterday to answer the question, but I thought we have you here and you're talking about the drones and and we're getting some new ones. So, yeah, that could be a good use of um the equipment there. Um I have Council Member Carbasi and then Council Member Perea Punch. Thank you, Chief. Now, I did have a few I think I have about three emails on this subject from different residents and I'm glad they reached out to me. Me, too.

Uh well, yeah, because it gave me an opportunity to actually get an answer to the question. I responded to all the emails, but I also reached out uh to the administration and to your office and with our as well as our legal counsel and I just want to be really clear because they asked some reasonable questions. Are we being compliant with the law? Based on what we discussed, we are being compliant in terms of the process of how this works to make sure we are compliant with state law. Would you just go into that a little bit more?

Certainly. Um this would our be our fourth year um since the uh AB481 was um enacted. So this will be our fourth year complying with the law and previously we were in compliance but this year we enhanced that by planning a community meeting. That's the one we've referred to as being next week on Wednesday. So in addition to the council meeting being a public meeting for public questions and public comment, we're holding the community meeting so we can be more one-on-one with people. We look, we have nothing to hide with this equipment. This is absolutely equipment that's essential for saving lives and preserving life in the city of Fresno. So, we'd love to be able to talk more to our residents about that.

Great. Yeah. I just want to Thank you, Chief. That helps a lot. Uh I want to be just very clear. I think people should we encourage them to reach out to our count the council members. We are the representatives. Don't make any assumptions. Every one of us can answer these questions. And uh I'm grateful for the three that did. And I'm grateful to the department for following up so we can get the facts out there. That's really important with policies like this. It prompted me to realize uh we can do more outreach with just letting people know that this is out there, that we're doing it, and that there we would love their engagement on it. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Mr. President. All right. Council member PA. Hi, Chief. Hi.

Um, I know the equipment that our SWAT officers use, we we have them with the hopes that we never have to use it, but god forbid if we ever do, it's there. And I'll speak firsthand that I've had to call 911 and I have had to have SWAT show up to uh my residence at the time when I was living um in the Fruit and Dakota area. And we had a situation where an armed man had trapped himself in a shed um just on the other side of my backyard fence line and he was shooting off hundreds of rounds just aimlessly shooting off hundreds of rounds. And um so I grabbed my family and I barricaded them and you know far far away from that property line as possible.

Um but SWAT did show up and they showed up in force and they did do what they had to do to preserve life within that neighborhood. And so I appreciate that. Um, and like I said, this is equipment that we hope to never have to use, but god forbid if we ever do, it's there. So I just want to say thank you because I think you your your team definitely saved lives that night. I'm appreciative for that.

Thank you very much. Yeah, there's such a wide array of equipment here when you have drones and you have less lethal shotguns which are bean bag rounds and then you have the SWAT equipment that um, council members exactly correct. We hope to never use it, but it's the thing that has to be there, ready to go, available, and reliable the moment that we need it. We can't debate it. We can't talk about it. We can't go try to seek it from another jurisdiction. We have to have it here because when the emergency happens, it's urgent and time is of the essence. Right. Thanks, Chief. You're welcome.

Uh so, at this point, again, this is not an item we're going to vote on today. It will be on the agenda for a vote next week. Um and in addition to the public meeting that the department's having uh on Wednesday evening. Uh but uh since this is a brand new item, it was moved uh from consent to the general administration. I am going to open up uh public comment on this standalone item um for any additional folks who'd like to speak on uh this item. So it's a it's a clean slate on this item even though some folks uh did comment earlier. Yes. U so I invite the public to comment on the military equipment use item that's uh that we're discussing.

May I add one more thing? I just want to be clear that this report's available not just attached to the council agenda. It is available. It will be at fresno.gov along with those policies, our entire policy manual if someone would like to dig a little deeper in that. Great. Thank you, Chief. Appreciate it.

Good afternoon. Thank you for opening for public comments on this topic. My name is Pastor Isabelle Vela and I stand be before you in strong opposition to expanding military equipment within the Fresno Police Department. We are not a battlefield. We are a community. According to the city's own independent oversight reports, in 2024, there were nearly 200 misconduct related investigations and complaints involving Fresno police officers. In just one quarter alone, there were nearly 100 complaints, internal investigations, and inquiries. These are not small numbers. These are serious indicators of ongoing issues that deserve attention. As we enter 2025, the pattern has not changed. Based on the city's own quarterly reporting structure, Fresno continues to see dozens of internal affair cases and community complaints every single quarter. Yet the public still does not have a clear transparent um total number for the 2025 misconducts. So the question becomes, why are we being asked to approve more militarystyle equipment before we have full transparency and accountability? Military equipment does not build trust. It does not heal communities and it does not prevent misconduct. Instead, it increases the likelihood of escalation and creates a divide between officers and the very people they are sworn to serve. Public safety is not built through intimidation. It is built through trust, accountability, and investment in people. If nearly 200 complaints in a single year did not call for deeper oversight, then what does? Before increasing force, we must ensure accountability. Fresno deserves safety rooted in trust, not fear. I respectly urge you to reject this expansion and instead prioritize transparency, accountability, and true community-based

safety solutions. Thank you.

Thank you. Any uh further comment, public comment on this item? The renewal of the FPD annual military equipment use report. Going once, going twice. Okay, we're going to go ahead and close the public comment on on this item. And again, for 3A, um there is no vote, so we're going to go ahead and close close this item. Any additional comments from council? All right, great. All right, so let's take it to the top. Uh contested consent. Uh we're going to go to item 2 W, and that was pulled by Council Member Richardson. Council President, I had some questions about this and they were answered by uh Director Barfield. So, uh motion to approve.

All right, we have a motion. We have a second. There any opposition to approving item 2W on the revenue agreement? Seeing none, the item passes 620. And we took public comment on this earlier in the day. You're off the hook, director, at least for that one. Yeah, got one more. Let's see here. See? Yeah, we do. We have item 2 Y. Also pulled by council member Richardson, the uh revenue service contract uh with STX commodities. Motion to approve. Thank you for answering the questions. No problem. Second.

All right, we have first, second, third. Uh Council Richardson. Council member Vang is a second. Um, any opposition to item 2 Y? Seeing none, item passes 620. All right, let's see here. We've got a couple of um a couple of items that were pulled by Council Member Arius. I don't know if he's back with us yet. See here, let's move over to item 4 A. I don't think he's a sponsor on that one. So for contested consent, we still have 2 AA and 2 CC that council member Arius pulled. So we'll give them a few more minutes, but meanwhile, let's move over to item uh 4A. I believe is sponsored by council members Richardson, Perea, and Carvasi. Go ahead and give you folks the floor.

Which item? 4 A. Oh, yeah. Well, actually, you know, we got He's here. Yeah, he's here. Yeah,

just in time. Okay. I was about to skip around for you. All right. So, we'll go to item 2A. This is uh resolution sponsored by Council Member Richardson. So, we'll I'll give you the floor and then it was pulled by Council Barius. All right. A clarification on what was published and what is intended here. This was updated, but it was not updated um early enough to make public disclosure. So, the actual title of this um when it's up for a vote will be resolution of the city of the council of the city of Fresno directing staff to conduct a feasibility study of facial recognition technology and for city attorney to seek a court order designated city hall as a place frequented by minors. The previous or the text that you may see may say in support of facial recognition technology and that is not the case. In fact, the conversation between myself and the city attorney's office has no intent of supporting anything that is unconstitutional, which is why it is directing staff to assess the legality and the constitutionality of this sort of issue. Now, why did this come up? Well, I will speak to this briefly. Uh it came up because we may have post a conversation between our city attorney's office and judges. We may have a responsibility as a city to put in restrictions or some sort of governance if this is determined a place frequented by minors. If any of you were here this morning, it was indeed frequented by minors. This is a very common occurrence here at city hall. Now, if we are determined to be that and have the legal requirements that come with that, we don't do anything about it or we don't know who's coming in and who's not coming in, then it's just a rule for a rule's sake. That's silly. That doesn't do anything. I like to compare it to having a speed limit sign in the middle of the desert. Great, you have a speed limit sign, but you don't know if anyone's breaking the speed limit because there's no one out there to enforce it. There's no point for that.

That's unnecessary. So in the event that we are required again if we are required per uh staff's pursuit of that designation we got to have a way to know we have to have a way to know if that rule is being broken and if it's not. Therefore, we've also directed staff, not only the city attorney's office, to look into whether or not that is a constitutional and a legal avenue to pursue, but also to finance department to find out if it's financially feasible for us at all and to the administration to find out if it is practically feasible for us. If it's something that's going to delay the lines out the door for 30 minutes, if it's something the security staff is able to handle, if it is practical to put in place. If those things come back no, then I expect there will be no action. If it comes back yes, that will give the council some direction. And specifically, we put in here because I have a desire to maintain the constitutional rights of everyone to make public comment. As come up, people mentioned earlier, you have a right to be here. You have a right to make your comments. You have a right to see what goes on in city hall. This building does not belong to the city council. This building belongs to the people of Fresno. All people of Fresno deserve the right to watch what's going on here and to pitch in, whether it's through comment, through participation, you name it. Now, the Brown Act gets updated per the last uh the bill that was passed at the beginning of the year. The Brown Act gets updated July 1st after which point video participation is coming back. Zoom, remember the old Zoom meetings from a year or two ago when people used to show up on Zoom and kind of say whatever they want, not have to come in for it? that is coming back. Which means to make public comment, you no longer have to just mail in a letter or come down here all the way to city hall and take your entire day off from work to come make your comments and maybe wait longer than you expected. Now, none of these rules, if we decide we have the responsibility to pass them and we decide to pass them, would go into effect prior to July 1st, which means essentially no change between now

and the implementation of the update of the Brown Act. was very specifically made that way. So, um I will go to my colleagues up here on the dis as well, but I wanted to be very clear about what this is, what it is not, the drives and the goals of this um of this resolution today. Council President, we'll go over to council member Arus who was the one who pulled the item.

Thank you, council president. I appreciate the clarification from my colleague. So, I just want to confirm that what I have in front of me is the old language as it relates to the support of the um facial recognition system and your amendment is removing that language. Correct. That that's correct and I wanted to make that distinction and I have a hard copy here of what it actually is once we vote what it look like. So, I'll bring that over now.

Thank you. My my other concern is this. Um and maybe the city attorney can help with this. Thank you. the reference on the original ordinance and on the uh updated ordinance. It indicates in section two last paragraph city attorney determine whether they are listed in a criminal registry quote unquote criminal registry. My concern there is there's numerous criminal registry systems across the country. So from my understanding we have the sex offender registry, the immigration criminal uh database, the state criminal database, the federal criminal database. So, is it the intent of this um body to put use a technology to go through all those databases and identify people based on whether they committed a crime, a misdemeanor in Texas or they have a criminal immigration case pending? And if so, are we liable for maintaining that information from being compromised and shared publicly? Because once we obtain information, it becomes a public record. So is there any definition to criminal registry that's been discussed thus far? And do should we have limits on what that entails? Is the intent of the author just to focus on um on sexual offender registry or to go beyond that database? That makes sense.

The intent of the author is not to go anywhere beyond that. We are not a policing body. Uh we are not an immigration enforcement body. We are really one of the very few responsibilities that we have is maintaining the safety of this building. Um going above and beyond that and trying to track down warrants or anything else is is nowhere near um the goal of this. And to the point that was made earlier about well do you feel safe, you know, why don't you do anything about having rapists or murderers in the building? And we do have a process of keeping murderers out of the building called prison. uh and if they are indeed the first option uh that would then theoretically either place them in prison and or on a registry. That that is the intent of this.

Okay. So what what would make me comfortable were to move forward with this is to make a revision that criminal registry for the purpose of this resolution is strictly focused on sex offender registry and not anything beyond that.

I would be in support of that. And then secondly, city attorney, when you come back with some research, um are you going to also present to us what responsibility and liability we have and what the plan is to um maintain that information to is does it become a public record that the local press can submit a public record to the city clerk and ask for every sex offender that's entered the building the last 30 days? Um the facial technology gives me a lot of concern um especially with the ability to do artificial intelligence. Are we intending to put limits on that or is is is those are those things going to be considered as you do your research?

I will look at all of those things. Okay. To the author, is it your intention to use artificial intelligence as part of the uh potential software that you propose and facial recognition?

Honestly, not necessarily. um in order to identify someone. I I don't think that requires a reliance on AI to do so. Uh where it puts the frame when it takes a picture, whatever. Likely. Yeah. But but I also want to clarify that this is not meant to and specifically drafted not to prevent people in taking part in the normal municipal duties that may bring you to city hall. There may be people who are on a registry who still have to go submit permits, who still have to come pick up confiscated materials, who still have to come in and pay a bill of one way or another. The intent is not to block any of that. That is regular municipal responsibilities that any person's going to have in a city. That should continue. That makes sense. That's not where generally when kids are visiting either.

The the other concern that I would like evaluated is under California law and the city attorney can correct me if I'm wrong, but individuals do not have to identify themselves or pro provide their addresses in order to address the legislative body in a public meeting. Correct. That is correct. Um, and is it correct that effective sometime this year, we're going to have to also exe accept virtual public comment? Correct. And those can remain anonymous as well. And those can remain and that date is July of this year. July 1st.

July 1st. So, if the law requires that people in person and virtually be able to remain anonymous as they address us publicly and we're using a software system to identify their name, their face and their address and we make that information available to the public because once we contain it, once it's in our hands, it becomes a public record. Would we be potentially in violation of state law? That's something I will be looking at. Okay. Uh it's yeah I I I think sometimes

uh sorry we the conversations here. Um okay. Um, well, I I think I made my comments clear about um the fact that I think um although we may have a you know convicted rapist in the White House, does not mean that we should just lower the standards of expectations for character um to these public offices of trust. Um but we also need to we also need to be thoughtful. We also need to be thoughtful of the fact that they are state laws that we're required to adhere to and um the ability to protect people's personal information when required under law. Um so I ask you just to consider all those variables as the item comes back for the research. Thank you.

I don't have anyone else punched up right now, but uh just kind of express my my concern. Um, and I think we had a friend sort of a friendly amendment there. Uh, I have concerns primarily about the AI component. Um, if perspectively, if you will. Um, you know, AI is not perfect. I mean, it's shown bias. It's shown borderline racism in terms of identifying folks. Um, so, you know, I think there's a lot of different directions that could possibly go. And so I would ask for language uh just that uh if and when AI is evaluated and the feasibility that it be uh sort of bottom priority.

I I I think that in our direction to the I'm totally with you. I think when it comes to our direction specifically to the city's attorney's office and Katherine from district 6 wanted me to mention this specifically what the legality or requirements are on somebody who comes in with um anti-facial recognition makeup as well. Uh how that is factored in if that could be part of the the research. I don't think it requires an amendment, but I council president, I think that's a decent point. And I think that as the administration aids us in looking at the feasibility of this, a very strong conversation is going to have to happen with ISD to find out what are we able to accomplish here without tapping into some larger um you know, balloons are not unpopable, right? What what what point can we proceed with this before we get to a point that is too overrun by AI? And I think that's it's good to be specific with that direction to ISD. So, I'm with you on that. Yeah, I think maybe the terminology you're looking for it before we balloon into a larger kind of surveillance issue, which frankly residents have issues with already, right, outside of this building. Um, and and now we're sort of introducing a debate about it to a degree here here in the building. And just want to make sure we're not um, you know, we're not trying to use a bazooka to take out an ant, right? Um, but yeah, if you're if you're amendable to that kind of amendment, was was there a motion yet? Actually, there there Yeah. Was there a motion? There was not a motion yet. I have council member Perea. Um, punch that.

Just a clarifying question for the author. Um, I think at one point we were talking about limiting this to only council meeting days. Is that still the case? Uh, I think once they look into the feasibility and constitutionality of it. I think they can make a recommendation that hey, on these days it's acceptable. It fits this criteria. Uh, on these days it doesn't. I won't know that until one, the conversation with the judge happens and then two, the discussions happen internally here with the administration about cost and feasibility.

Okay. Um, and then I I may have missed this, but if somebody were to come through our building and we have this technology and an alert goes off, did you say that we would immediately have to remove them or they still have the ability to come in and pay a water bill, but at least at that point they're being surveillanced?

That's a good piece to include in the research as well. Um it's my in the scenario that it were only used on city council days because that's when it's frequented by children if we go that route. Um in theory it wouldn't be applicable on the other days or even wouldn't be put out on those other days. If it were uh and the conversation between city attorney and the judge deems that 24/7 this is considered a place frequented by children that'll probably put some more restrictions on us. Um at which point we'll take the legal advice that we get once we get our research back. I I gener generally support anything that um any sort of policy to better protect our children, especially from those that have a history uh purposefully harming our children. Um my concern with this is I know we can control who we potentially are trying to keep out of this building. Um but my concern is there is still going to be that level of fear from our immigrant community. Um, we may tell them, hey, we're not looking for your documentation status. We're not scanning your face to see whether or not, you know, you're you you have legal status to be in the country. Um, my only hesitation is they may not believe us when we say that. And so, I don't want to keep um our undocumented population. I don't want to to stoke fear in them thinking that they potentially will be surveillanced and turned away or possibly arrested. um especially because we know we know that's not what we're we're doing with this technology, but they may not believe us. And so my only concern with this is, you know, I I don't want to create a false perception that they now have something to fear and so they are going to start staying away from our government buildings.

I think that's my biggest concern.

I I think that's very valid. Um I think that the concerns about uh stepping on constitutionality are valid as well which is why I'm really looking forward to you know when this provided that's the direction at least is approved for them to look into it and this comes back we can weigh all those factors and decide whether it's not a road that we want to go down uh a policy that we want to pursue and I hope that in that analysis comes asurances right guard rails if you will um on this policy that come back from the city attorney administration or otherwise that talk about these are the asurances that we have. This is what we can guarantee the public. This is the technology being used XYZ. Um and I think that's an important idea to keep in mind especially as this comes back post analysis. I appreciate that.

Yeah. No, and I appreciate the response. Um you know I think I'm I came into this with a very open mind. I have very strong opinions when it comes to um sexual predators and um you know I today I'm not going to support the resolution but you know it looks like there may be support to pass it and so when we when we do get that feasibility study back I'm going to approach that with a very open mind and I'm going to look to see what the results are and make a decision from that point um on how we move forward with potentially bringing that technology into this building. Thank you, Council Member Arius, followed by Council Member Carbassi.

Thank you. I just have one question for legal counsel, maybe the author, whoever wants to answer it. Is in order for you to get research done by the city attorney, do we need to have the resolution approved as drafted today? Or could we I I know we all asked the city attorney to do research for us. Can that be done without adopting a resolution that what my concern is um council Richardson is that the language is evolving. I don't want folks in the public to misinterpret it. If you which I believe you can just get the city attorney to do the research that you need based on the feedback that you've received today. Maybe we don't even have to take um this resolution resolution for action today unless you feel a resolution is needed in order to get legal team to do some research.

So, city attorney, do you need a resolution to direct you to do research for a member? Um I could take direction in in either way. Um the only caveat is there is language in here directing me to take legal action. So, that's typically not done through a resolution, but um I would need council, a majority of counsel to allow me to direct legal action. C can you go over that specific direct um action? What what action are we authorizing for you to take legally? Cuz

well, and I can have the author clarify. I'm not sure if it's if if it's explore the the feasibility as well uh in terms of filing that action or or is this asking me to to actually go and do it? The reason I ask and before maybe you would we get there is typically when we take action on legal direction it's in close session versus an open session. So I don't want to get too far down the path of legal strategy. Um, so if it's simply to explore, it might be better just to bypass a resolution tonight and just have you as a council member give direction on the research that you want to come back.

So I I think to clarify what legal action is, vice a a lawsuit um or suing or defending or anything of that nature. Um, this is specifically just direction to the city attorney's office to go to a judge to see if we fit into a certain count category that would give us responsibilities as as city council. That's really what it is. And again, at the very first step, they could go to a judge. The judge could say no and then it disappears. Um, but we won't really know unless we explore whether or not legally we have that definition. That's what the direction is.

Thanks for that clarification. That for me just raised some additional red flags because if our city attorney goes and asks for a judge for essentially classification, we are absolutely going to invite legal opposition whether it's the ACLU or members of the public or you know sex predators you know incorporated. Um, and that is going to put us into a path of legal liability and financial costs that I'd rather we discussed in close session versus an open session before we consider that kind of approach.

So, uh, city attorney, is this something that's more reasonably discussed without, uh, not here in front of the public, just amongst ourselves in the back? I would honestly prefer that, council member. Okay, we can do that. I I thought it was worth it to bring it to the public and allow this conversation to be had out loud. Uh but if it's the advice to have it back in uh in close session, then uh understandable. We have council member Carbasi. Yeah, I appreciate all the discussion. I just want to know what exactly is on the table today. What are we just to be very very clear, what are we voting on today? Well, perhaps nothing after the acknowledgement here, but

yeah, direction to the city attorney to go to the judge, see if this qualifies as a place frequented by children, what qualifications that gives us based on that, and research as to whether or not some sort of identification of threats to that designation is feasible by the city. And I know we have another item coming up kind of related to this. I just really appreciate Council Member Richardson for bringing this up so we can have this discussion. Thank you. All right, I'll give the floor back to the uh back to the author. I have no one else punched up. So, city attorney, what would your recommendation be to move this to uh close session at a future hearing?

Well, I can take I can take your draft as direction specifically from you and your office to do the legal research and um my request would be to um agendaize uh potential litigation um in terms of uh perhaps filing something in in court. in close session. Okay. Are you good with that? Very well. So moved. Okay. Have some move. Second. Do we need a a vote on this?

It it appears that if I'm understanding correctly, you're withdrawing your reso your resolution. Okay. Have motions to withdraw. Okay. All right. Any opposition? All right. See known that's 70 on the withdrawal and we'll uh take city attorney direction and terms of uh the research using the draft as a as a base and then agendaizing a close session discussion. Thank you. All right, let's go down to 2CC uh for our last contested consent item and then we'll get over to 4A. So 2CC's was uh sponsored by council member Perea, pulled by council member Arya. So, I'll give the floor to Council Member Perea.

Thank you, Council President. Um, so this item is to uh conduct a study. I did some research with our existing rental housing improvement program and learned that we currently do not monitor corporate ownership um or institutional investors when it comes to um home ownership within our city. And so this resolution is to um study that to see who exactly owns large portions of housing product within our our city. Uh many times corporations often fail to maintain a local presence which results in a lot of potential conflict between renters and landlords. Um, we've also seen corporations who do not have a local presence uh typically have a harder time addressing uh updates to their units that they need in order to not be on our slumlord list. And so this study is going to just identify corporateowned properties within our city to really get a better idea of how much of a problem this is within the city of Fresno. Um once we get that study, the goal is to do some research and to determine if there are any ordinance amendments or any need to introduce new ordinance um to better hold these corporations accountable. Um oftent times corporations who own large scale units within our city often set rental rates higher than people who um who do maintain local presence. Corporate ownership of rental um properties I I believe also reduce the level of direct community investment versus those who do live here and control the rental units themselves. And so in summary, this is just a a study to direct and right now I have it saying the city manager, but I would like to update that

to say the city attorney's office to do a study to um measure just how big of a an issue this is within our city, provide us with that report, and then from there as a council, we can determine if there is any action that needs to be taken um in order to better hold hold corporateowned rental properties um accountable. That's it in a nutshell. Okay. Uh we have uh actually city attorney go ahead and then we're going to go over to council who who pulled it. Uh council member, if this passes, may I have permission to work with um the administration? Yes, please. Thank you. Council Vargas.

Thank you, Council President. I pulled it because I hadn't had an opportunity to speak to my colleague about the two questions I had because primarily because she's a busy mom and second because I've been distracted with my backyard work respons responsibilities. Um but for the record what I posed to my colleague was whether the existing registry that we have for um landlords did whether it did not contain that information. She confirmed it did not. So, um, and then secondly, um, the question about administration versus city attorney, which has been addressed. So, I'm supportive of the item, and I appreciate the clarification. I'd like to make a motion to approve, council president.

Second. So, we we have a motion. We have a second. Uh, I'll chime in. Uh, just I'm not easily impressed, Council Member Py, but this I thought this item was brilliant when I took a look at it. Um, Matt, I didn't think of it first. Um, couple of questions. You know, with respect to the city attorney, we're piling on. This is the second study in a row, uh, because he went from the city manager now to the city attorney. Um, would we be okay with, uh, first question, would we be will we be okay with him sort of subcontracting that out? Um, or do you expect that to be internally or and then do we have any dollars attached to this or um, do we expect to kind of just absorb it as as? Is this a study that can be done in-house or would you need to outsource this?

Let's start in house. Um, and if I have problems, I'll come back to you. Great. Sounds great. Uh, we have a motion. We have a second. I have council member Richardson. Uh, punch that. City attorney, do you need direction to study this? Do you need a resolution? I feel like we just talked about this. Maybe I'm not I've only been here for a year. Maybe I'm not understand. Do you need a resolution to study this? You're laughing. That's not encouraging. I

I'll speak I'll speak as the author. Um we may perhaps not need a resolution, but if there is not a majority of the council that supports studying this in the first place, then they have the ability to turn it down right now. In which case, our city attorney would not have to spend any resources studying this. So for me, I'll speak for, you know, my item personally. I would like to know if there is even council support to pursue this path. Yeah. And I think just to to chime in, um I I think we are still going to agendaize the previous item just in a different format and and give some direction there. I'd be in support of it. I'm always always a fan of more homework.

No, this is great. This is this is a brilliant uh brilliant data to have. I think it could inform a lot of policy going forward uh for the future council.

And and I just would like to say for the record that under our current system and structure, any charter officer is allowed to ask the city attorney to do research for it, but it requires the body to authorize litigation, which is what's different in this item versus a previous item. Um, and then of course when the city attorney cries help because he's overwhelmed with the request, then council leadership gets to decide uh whether we put some in the back burner after consulting with the authors or whether we increase their budget allocation to get all the work done. So um I am looking forward to the budget conversation and see what stays in terms of their to-do list. Yeah, perhaps perhaps both the previous this item and the previous one could perhaps um necessitate a subcontract of some sort, but cross that bridge if we come to it. We have a motion, we have a second. I have no one else punched up. Is there any opposition to item 2C? Seeing none, we have a clean 7 to0 vote. We're almost at 3:00, but just a couple minutes short uh for the special meeting. Uh let's try and take on 4A. That shouldn't take us hopefully more than 15 20 minutes at at the most. Um, so let's move over to 4 A and then we'll move on to the special meeting. So item 4 A uh resolution support of state assembly bill 2753 demand sex offenders from holding public office. This is sponsored by council members Carbassi, Perea, and Richardson. So I'll hand the floor over to the uh to the sponsors.

Thank you, council member, council president. Sorry, I'll get there. Forgive me. So, um, as a lead author on this, I just want to first of all state I want to thank Assemblywoman Sora, who used to sit on this body, who recognized that we faced a dilemma, and I want to encourage my colleagues to pass this to support AB 2753. After 7 years as a council member, I have to admit, I really thought I've seen it all. But the recent stories out there of a registered sex offender uh getting a lot of media attention and trying to run for this seat, I didn't think it was going to go anywhere because I didn't think there are 20 people foolish enough to sign the nomination papers to put someone like that on the ballot. But the reality is it forced the conversation and we just finished one item on that subject here today. Um earlier today I was standing out here about to do a proclamation and we had uh about I don't know over a dozen kids here and we had a sex offender in the audience and what made me really upset as a local policy maker is I couldn't do anything about it and that's frustrating. I know we had some people uh earlier today that commented on this item, but I'm looking right now at the Megan's Laws website, and I see that candidate right here, convicted of uh penal code 311.11a. And uh the nice way of putting it is it's possession or control of obscene matter depicting a minor in in sexual conduct. I'm not going to say what it stands for, but it's a nice way of putting it for a very vulgar crime that a person was convicted of committing. Now, I believe in redemption, but I don't think it gives you the right to do whatever you want. When you are on the list under Megan's law, there are limits. You have restrictions. For example, you're limited on where you can live. You're limited on where you can work and you're limited on international travel. Uh, police departments in foreign countries have a right to know uh when you're going to be traveling

there so they can protect their kids. So, this is a public building and like council member Richardson said earlier, we're not looking to com to completely limit uh a person's right to participate, but you can't just do whatever you want. But the reality is we need clarification from the state. And Esmeralda Sora used to sit up here. She cares about this community. And the fact is without us even asking her, she heard our calls and she said, "Okay, I'm going to Sacramento. I'm going to introduce AB2753. We're going to get it passed and I think all of us as a council need to stand with our uh fellow former colleague and stand with her too to get AB2753 pass. So I ask my colleagues to join us in doing that today.

Thank you. All right. Do the other authors have any uh additional comments?

I'll I'll just be brief and I'll just say that I want to thank um Maria Pacheo for being here today. She's a staff member of Assemblywoman Sorium. Um when we first found out what was happening, we sort of jumped to the gun. Um maybe based a little bit out of emotion, but I think um that emotion was warranted. And um I I sound like a broken record, but you know, I think anything any more we can do to protect young people is something that we should all take a stand on and and take leadership on. um when we found out that we as a city do not have the ability to um limit somebody's ability to run for office, as council council member Karbosi said, you know, our assembly woman heard the message loud and clear and so she took this issue and she's running with it up in Sacramento. Um so I just want to give big kudos to the assembly member for taking leadership on protecting our children here. Um but not just in Fresno. this. Hopefully, if this bill does pass, it will protect our young folks all across the state. And so, I just want to thank the assembly member for having presence here today. Um, I hope this is a unanimous approval. We'll wait and see. Um, but I couldn't be more proud of our city and our state for standing in solidarity on this issue. Thanks.

Great. I don't have anyone else punched up. C Richardson.

Sure. It was brought up earlier that it's not our place to judge And I firmly believe that. And the intent of this resolution in support of the the bill in Sacramento is not an attempt to judge. It's an attempt to make our voices heard at the state level. We're putting these positions to carry the voices of our constituents up. This is doing that. Goal is not to judge. The goal is to keep people safe. Whether you think you're judged, whether you think you're rehabilitated, whether you think you're scot-free, that's between you and God. for us. We have responsibilities here in this building and to the 600,000 plus people in Fresno. And I appreciate my colleagues joining in and uh us keeping that safe.

All right, Council Member Arus. Thank you, Council President. As uh the second most senior member of this body behind member Sparza who's older, I I think I have a responsibility to also provide some historical context for the community who doesn't understand the process of being elected because they've never had the opportunity, responsibility or um the initiative to undertake it. There's a few things you need to do. One is you need to be a US citizen. Uh second, you have to be in good standing accordance with state laws. And um third, you have to get in a council race 20 voters in that area that you're proposing to represent to agree that your name should be on the ballot for voters to consider. And in this case, that individual was not able to get 20 of his neighbors to agree that he should appear on a ballot. And that's why he's not on the ballot. Nothing that this body um did to keep him from the ballot. And in doing so, though, imagine this. To get 20 voters to agree to sign your form for you to pin the ballot, you have to go out their homes. You got to walk through their front yards. Typically, there's a gate. You got to have them open the door. Typically, there's kids running around the house. You have to disturb them during dinner time, you know, on their way to school, on their way getting home from school. At all times, the average voter has multiple kids at home. The average voter is working multiple jobs

and has multiple responsibility when somebody's knocking on the door. And it's always a stranger cuz you usually have not met the person in that district. Our council districts are approximately 80,000 people. None of us have met 80,000 people when we choose to run for office. In the process of running for office, you end up knocking at about 10 or 20,000 doors, potentially entering 10 or 20,000 living rooms, front yards, and backyards. And imagine the reaction of voters and their anger towards us as policy makers that we did not tell them that that person that they let in was a potential threat to the safety of their children.

We made it a policy in this body not to take items up that are state or federal consequence. Let's stick to our lane. But in few occasions, things like this item, a state law, has a direct impact on our local community and in our residents. And the final point I'll make to you is a couple weeks ago on my way to drop off my 14-year-old or 13-year-old now to school, I stopped at the hardware store to pick up supplies for the evening home improvement project. At the cash register, some lady came up to me. It was clear that she was distraught and asked to speak to me after I finished paying the cashier. And I met her outside the cashier and she asked that I that I send my kid into the car because what she was about to tell me wasn't appropriate to be sent in front of a teenager. And having been in many of these interactions over my time, I expected a very difficult conflict- oriented conversation about some pothole or something I say on this dis or something happening in DC or the war in Iran. And instead, what she told me is, why are you allowing a sex offender onto the city council? The lady didn't live in my district that I had never met her. She never met me. But she recognized me and she laid into me for a bit about our failures as policy makers to protect them and their children from the potential of harm.

So I I don't take this decision lightly, but to be crystal clear, it's not a difficult decision. For those folks who are registered sex offenders, I know it's difficult. It's also difficult for everyone who comes out of incarceration, whether they are there because they stole pizza, stole a car, or committed a violent felony. And it takes a long time to rebuild their lives. But not every position and every job is meant for everyone. We wouldn't want a registered sex offender as a teacher. We wouldn't want them as a police officer or a firefighter or a nurse or a doctor,

nor somebody who is expected to enter the living rooms and the homes of 20,000 people's on an annual basis. So, um I I think there's other ways that they can contribute. We have plenty of institutions of incarceration, plenty of rehab facilities, plenty of second chance opportunity programs where they can contribute back to society, but this one is not one of those. Um with that, I'll be happy to support this item. Council member Carbassi. Sure. Sure. I just wanted to make a motion to approve and then make one more statement. But

we have a a motion in a second. We're going to go and take that. We will I will come back to you for that, but we're going to do public comment before we do that. Um yeah, but you know, I'll I'll I'll be in support of this. This one's really a no-brainer for me.

Um I think a public official should be able to go through to all parts of their district without any type of uh issue. And a public official should be someone that folks can generally uh feel safe around as a bare sort of bare minimum requirement. Um you know and and to my colleagueu's point about uh what are the requirements sometimes I I I do I do spend a lot of time in schools in my capacity u as council member and as also as an educator and talking to middle schoolers elementary school children and they ask Mr. Sparza, you know what, you know, what do you got to do to to run for office and tell them you got to be US citizen and 18 years old and you're in, right? There's no really aren't aren't any other filters. But I think as recent events kind of brought to our attention, you know, maybe this is this is absolutely one uh filter that we ought that we we should consider and we would if if it was within our legislative ability. But the next best thing is to since that's not is to support uh support that at the state level of government and we have our former colleague uh Sora who's willing to to spearhead that at the state capital. So um happy to support this uh as well. I will come back to the sponsor for the motion. Uh but um first we're going to go to public comment. This is a standalone item. We have not taken public comment on this yet. I do have a few cards. Uh the first card is from Bri Brian Kelly or Keller. I can understand the handwriting here. You'll have uh three minutes. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. Uh my name is Brian Kelly. I'm a member of this community and a survivor of sexual assault. I'm here to speak on a serious concern involving constitutional rights, accountability, and public trust. Let me be clear. I do not minimize the harm caused by sexual offenses. As a survivor, I understand the lifelong

impact. Survivors deserve deserve safety, justice, and to be heard. But justice must also be consistent. It must be constitutional and it must be fair. A law broadly bans individuals from running for public office based on past offenses raises serious constitutional concerns especially when those individuals have already served their sentences. Participation in democracy including the right to run for office is a fundamental principle. Removing that right without clear consistent standards undermines that principle. At the same time there are serious allegation involving individuals already in position of power including claims of inappropriate relations with minors. So where is the consistency? Where is the equal accountability? We cannot create one standard for some people and a different standard for others. If accountability matters, it should and then it must apply equally regardless of status or position. If the public is expected to support these decisions, then the system must first demonstrate fairness, integrity, and accountability across the board. This is about more than one law. It's about whether our system applies justice evenly or selectively. As a survivor, I believe in accountability, but I also believe that fairness is what gives accountability meaning. I am formally placing these facts and concerns on the record and request that they be preserved in in full as part of the official minutes of this meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next speaker is going to be Renee Campos. Oh I would like this record. I would like this to be in the official record. I'm not here as a candidate. I'm here as a member of the public to attend a public meeting. I object to false

prejuditial statements being made about me. I'm not disrupting. I'm not a threat. You're attempting to justify exclusion through labels and fear, not law. And you all know it. As you sit here talking about me in third person, you know you're talking about me. You call me violent a rapist. I've never done anything of the type. I've never done anything to anyone. And if you look at my past, you would have seen I pushed harder than anybody. I've made my way from a cook to a district manager across several companies. Hiring people that would never be hired. Yeah, I did that. I built that across several different stores. You say I'm a monster. I'm not. I'm here. Have I disturbed anybody? No. I just been sitting here listening to you guys. What I do hear is the rhetoric of you guys saying over and over and over, pushing and pushing. My campaign is over, but I still see the bullying. You're trying to justify this new law with fear and you repeatedly echo sex offender rapist. You are creating a narrative that is not true. 290 is broad. There are tears. They're nonviolent offenders and there are violent offenders. I'm not a violent offender and I've never done anything violent in my life. The only thing I've done in my life is help everyone and anyone that comes around me. I do my best to help everyone. I'm not trying to minimize what I did. I took full responsibility for I did because that's what you do. That's what you do. And you telling me I can't qualify for this job? Well, I don't think that's true. I think I've proven I can get here fast. You guys say you're going to create a block. Hey, cross that constitutional line. Go for it. Put it through to a judge. Do whatever you have to do. Miguel, you

even stated you are willing to use taxpayer dollars to pay me. What was What did the people think about that? There have been roads for broken for 10 years. There are parts of the cities under some of your districts that are terrible. Terrible. What did I do about that personally? I help the people with walking through providing community support. Yeah, they know my story. They're not scared of me. It's the fear you created. And since you want to bring it up and go straight there, it is you guys who created the fear with the city and everyone. You called me an embarrassment, but it was you. You're the leaders. You're the leaders. And right now, we're talking about voter suppression through structure. You say, "Oh, it won't be used this way." But that's what they say time and again in history. Thank you. Our next speaker is going to be Pastor Isabelle. And that's my last card on this particular issue. If you uh would like to speak on item 4 A that we're discussing currently, uh please uh fill out a yellow card and bring it on up. Uh, good afternoon again. My name is Pastor Isabelle Villa and I want to address an issue that is challenging, emotional, and deeply important to our community. At the foundation of this country are constitutional rights. We do not strip people of their rights simply because it is uncomfortable, unpopular, or politically convenient. If a person has served their sentence and the law does not prohibit them from running for office, then we must acknowledge that they retain certain civil rights, including participation and political process. This is a standard of a free society. But rights alone are not the

full conversation because public office is not just access, it is authority. It is a position that carries influence over policies, decisions, and s systems that directly affect families and children. Each one of you sat here stating that it's the people that carry the voice and you're here because of the people and you're pushing this on up to the state. So then you should have that trust and belief that the people would not give the 20 signatures where they do not want them to be instead of turning this around and making it restricting on certain rights, especially for people that have changed their ways. Thank you. Okay, any further public comment? Item 4 A. 10 seconds.

No. Uh if you've spoken already, uh that's going to be your your time. Is there any additional uh folks that would like to speak? I'm punch. Seeing none, we're going to go ahead and close the public comment on item 4 A. I have Council Member Richardson punched up. Oh, sorry. I I I did promise Carvasi and then Richardson.

Okay. uh really appreciate the uh public comment and the crocodile tears, but this is a really simple issue. Um should sex offenders be able to serve on local policy boards? I think this is an issue the state needs to decide. And I know we had some folks earlier almost defending sex offenders. I don't give a damn about sex offenders or their rights. I want to be real clear about that. I do care about those kids that were here today and I care about kids that are vulnerable. So he says he didn't do anything wrong. California Penal Code 311.11. It says the POS defines the possession of child pornography as a serious crime. Okay, it's not violent, but it sure as hell is serious. So, uh, I'll leave it at that. This is a no-brainer. This is the right thing to do. Thank you,

Council Member Richardson.

Piggyback. California Elections Code 20 are crimes that will disqualify you from running for public office in the state of California. They already exist. Plot twist. They didn't come out of Fresno City Hall and they didn't come recently. They have existed. And these bans are specifically crimes described as those that violate public trust or honesty. One of those is perjury. If you're not familiar with perjury, perjury is lying. So, if you can be barred from being prosecuted for lying in the state of California, not here to compare sins, but if you were to pick between somebody who lied and someone who's on a registry for doing something involving children, I I I don't think that's a hard decision to make. I know it's not for me. It sounds like it's not for my colleague over here on my left. I don't think it is for my colleagues over here to my right either. Those already exist. Now, this would be in support of adding one more crime, which in my opinion violates public trust, and in my opinion, violates the public's opinion of your ability to be honest and upstanding in your actions, just like bribery, embezzlement, theft, extortion, perjury, or conspiracy to do any of those things. I think this is been long overdue that this is added to the list. So, obviously, I'm in support of this as well. And as is standing California Elections Code, not new. Thank you.

All right. I will entertain a motion. Motion. So, Council Member Carbosi, seconded by Council Member Richardson. Is there any opposition to item 4 A? Seeing none, that passes 7 to Z. Thank you for the lively discussion. Uh, so now we got that item behind us. We are going to pause the regular meeting and we're going to open the special meeting uh the 3M item. So, I'm going to go ahead and uh call to order the uh special meeting here at 3 p.m. Uh do we need a roll call on that?

Yeah. Let's go ahead and call the role. Clerk, thank you. Excuse me. Council member Perea. Council member Carbassi here. Council member Arius, Council Vice President Maxwell, Council Member Vang, present. Council member Richardson, present. Council President Esparza, present. Seven members being present, we have a quorum. All right. Motion to approve the agenda.

Right. We have a motion and a second. Council member Maxwell, Council Vice President Maxwell, and Council Member Artius. Uh, any opposition to approval of the agenda? Seeing none, the agenda is approved. We have one item uh resolution to begin the process to remove uh the Caesar Chavez Boulevard street signs in support of the Stand with Farm Workers Integrity Act. This is sponsored by uh myself uh council members uh Perea and Carbasi. And seeing the interests uh from yesterday before we open up uh further uh now that we're out in the open and public, I'll invite any additional sponsors who wanted to um hop on to this but could not yesterday. Likewise. All right.

I'll let the record reflect. We're adding Council Member Aras, Council Member Vang as additional co-sponsors to this, uh, to this item. All right. Fantastic. So, uh, I have two folks punched up. Uh, so we'll take a couple comments and we'll do public comments and then come back up to council. So, Council Member Adius and then Carbasi. Oh, you know what? I apologize. You We have the the sponsors. Uh, I'll get the sponsors uh uh the floor first. So, I'll go Carbassi then audience. S you want to go first? She's one of the originals. Okay. She wasn't punched up. You were the one punched up.

Um, I'm just going to be really brief here and I'm going to read what I sent out yesterday um because I know a lot of people were really surprised by all the news and it's been a lot in the last couple of days. Um, Dolores Wuerta has displayed an incredible amount of courage throughout her ordeal. Even though she was victimized repeatedly, she kept her secret for decades out of fear that it would hurt others. She put other people before herself. Out of respect for her, I feel it's appropriate that we take swift action to restore the King's Canyon Ventura and California Avenue signage. That way, she and any other victims can continue healing and peace. When we looked at this item many many years ago, I think for most of us it was, hey, let's honor the farmworker movement. Let's honor people that during the pandemic we deemed essential and this was a unique opportunity. But what was really hard, one thing that's carried me, especially with the folks that fought for California Avenue, you weren't saying anything against farm workers. You were just talking about your heritage, where you grew up, the history of your community. and the vote didn't go your way that time, but you've all been really gracious about it, but it stuck with me. The letters, the comments, the outreach, and it was something that it's always been in the back of my mind. Now, what's happened overall has been really hard to bear and I look forward to my the comments of my colleagues who have been a part of um uh this council for a long time. I know they'll have a lot of wisdom, but I just want you to know that you are very heard today. And uh I don't know if this is going to pass today. I assume it will like it is passing other communities, but I just want to just as a gesture thank you for all your patience and say we're going to restore California Avenue.

Yeah, I'm actually have to move it because if I sit down, you can't see my face, but that's a lot better. But uh again, thank you all for speaking up and thank you for fighting for um your neighborhoods too. But again, I also ask that you take this moment to also recognize the importance of farm workers and how essential they are to our community because they feed us every day and they go through a lot and they're very vulnerable. And with that, I thank you all.

Council member P, do you have any sponsor comments? I made a few earlier, but I'll just reiterate that it's important that we do not let this overshadow the winds that came from this union. Um because of the hard work of thousands, we have um workers rights for our farm workers that um didn't exist back then. And so I think it's important to carry um that part of the legacy forward and continue to fight for farmworker rights. Um, with that being said, you know, I I do stand in solidarity with Dolores Warta and any other woman that was harmed at the hands of uh Caesar Chavez. Um, it's heart-wrenching to have learned the truth. I believe Dolores. I believe any woman that speaks out um and says that they have been harmed at the hands of anyone, especially our minors that have come forward. I said this earlier as well, but if you are somebody that has been a victim of sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, please come forward. There are resources out there. I know it's scary to come forward, but there are there is help out there for you. Um, but with that being said, you know, I I do not believe this is an individual who um deserves to be plastered all along one of our main corridors of our city. Um, I'm thankful that the city did keep the old signage. I look forward to seeing the corridor restored back to its original name. This was one of the very first votes I had to take as a council member. Um, and it was really hard. It was my first my my the first big controversial vote where I started to get bombarded with emails in support and against

um and I I did support it back then, but I'm also happy to support um the reversal of that moving forward. So, thank you, Council President. Um look forward to hearing the input from the community. All right, Council Maddius.

Thank you, Council President. I might be a little longwinded in my comments because I think this is far more important than just street name today. Um, you know, I think we have to first start with acknowledging the harm and center ourselves around the survivors since the devastating disclosure by Delo Wuerta, the matriarch of our community that she's a victim of Cesar Chavez along with the reporting that identified additional victims in the New York Times, including children, which we spoke about earlier today in an unrelated item. We must be thoughtful of centering ourselves and those who are harmed. It's our first responsibility to acknowledge their pain, their suffering, and believe the survivors and ensure that they're not erased as part of this conversation. Secondly, I think we have to recognize the impact of our community. As a father, as a former farm worker myself, as a son of farm workers, the news has been deeply, painfully, and personally devastating to us. It has sh has shaken many of us, especially those of us who spent a lifetime fighting for farmworker rights and honoring the legacy that we believed in. In the audience today are people who've been fighting along Cesar Chavez and Dolores and farm workers for decades. And last night I met with a few people who've been doing the same thing. And we're all struggling with this devastating news. We're all grieving in our ways. We're heartbroken for the elders and the longtime advocates in the community that are experiencing this. But we also have to honor the role of journalism and truthtelling. We should commend the journalists who spend years investigating and bringing this truth to light. In a time where the press is often attacked at the federal level by the president and even at the

local level on this DAS, we've seen attack on local journalism because they're doing their jobs and reporting the truth that makes a lot of us uncomfortable. This is a reminder that journalism is essential to accountability and our system of democracy and I want to thank the journalists for that. Although what they reported has been devastating to many of us, it was necessary. Even when the truth is painful, we need it. And the journalist have done their job. I do want to make a note of Jim Borne, the Freso B, former Fresno B editor, who on a posting this week acknowledged that maybe journalists should have pushed harder early on. Maybe journalists should have asked tougher questions early on and we would have all avoided the process of having to take down names, take down statues, and changed the names of school buildings and plazas. But that should also be a reminder to us that we should support the journalist, especially when they're being under attack for doing their jobs and bringing pedophiles, sexual offenders to account, like the Epstein files. Accountability must be consistent. Unfortunately, sexual abuse has become normalized for some imposition of power. Too often, individuals and leaderships are protected rather than held accountable. We have seen that at the local and at the highest level of our institutions, both in our faith-based institutions like the Catholic Church,

in the White House, and in local governments across the country. In the Epstein files, there's 5,300 files that contain the president's name. It's mentioned 38,000 times. And yet, some of our colleagues of the Republican party say nothing. Instead, they find a way to block the release of the perpetrators. Instead, they happily celebrate what's taken place recently in this scenario while refusing to hold their own party accountable, which to be frank, it makes me quite proud today to be a Democrat, to be a Californian, and to be part of this body. The news was devastating, but the decision is easy. For some people, we might be moving too fast. The fact is, if we would have known now what was occurring then, we would have acted faster. Let's be clear about accountability and what it looks like. You do not protect the identity of abusers. You do not make excuses for those abusers. You do not elevate them to positions of power like the presidency of the United States and accountability must apply to everyone even those who are no longer living if credibility is to exist. In the past, this body had a debate of whether we visit revisit the names of multiple buildings in our city. Some of them had connections to owning slaves.

And we heard from a group then, don't do anything. Let history lay where it's where it is. Don't change the name of the museum. Let's just look past that. I'm glad that we're not having that conversation today. And I do think we need to revisit those. Some would have called that the count culture, being too woke. I call that the righteous thing to do. And simply put, it's hypocrisy at its best. So I ask those on the social media to take a seat, be quiet, and take some notes and learn how accountability takes place at the local level. I want to reaffirm our commitment to farm workers. This movement does not change our commitment to them. It strengthens it. It also does not minimize the need for support that they require from all of us. As an example, city clerk, if you can pull up the document, our farm workers are currently under attack. This president is proposing to cut their wages by5 to 7. The same day that this devastating news broke, the United Farm Workers was in federal court across the street from this building demanding that the federal judge did not allow them to take a $2.4 billion wage cut. While inflation is going, gas prices are up. The individuals that put food on our table, this president is trying to cut their wages below the state minimum wage salary. So, what I'm going to ask of all of us is let's not celebrate with the street

sign. There'll be moments that we will be tested whether we really support farm workers, whether we really support West Fresno residents. There'll be a reason vote in these chambers soon. And I assure you that our residents are not going to say, "Thank you for the name, but go ahead and put more heavy industry in my neighborhood." There'll be moments in this chambers where farm workers will need us to stand up with them against the federal administration on wage stepped. And it won't be enough to say, "We're with you in a rally, but I'm busy to show up for a tough vote." So at the end, removing the Cesar Chavez Boulevard Street name is not about erasing history. It's about aligning our public spaces with our values. We can honor the contributions of farm workers without ignoring them. We move forward with honesty, accountability, and a renewed commitment to justice for everyone. So, I I ask that the council support this name change. And I want to say thank you to the West Fresno leaders who I met with a couple of days ago. Thank you to the Southeast Fresno leaders who I also met with. And to the countless of elders I've spoken to in the last couple days. It's been a difficult time for all of us, but I want you to know that this work goes beyond simply a name change, and it continues. And there is now a generation of former farm workers, of children of farm workers that will stand in the front lines when our farm workers are attacked. We will not have to rely on a hero, on paper, or a matriarch. We will be ready to defend our farm workers. Thank you all.

All right. Uh, Council Member Vang, you're punched up. Thank you very much, Council President um Sparza. I was not here when this council or when the council here uh voted to change the main corridor that runs through my district to uh the uh the person whom I were not named. The main corridor east of Peach Avenue still remains Canyon and west of that has been erased. and as a uh seasonal farm worker as a teenager during high school and my college years when I came back to the city of Fresno to do uh farm work and currently I own land that are prime for farming and have uh small farmers working on that land again from the 1960s strikes to the present. This is to honor the farm workers. The Central Valley is the bread winner of everything to the world. It is the agricultural capital of the world and we are here to continue to honor the people who feed the world right in our backyard. The question that I do have is moving forward, what about the small business along King's Canyon corridor, the mob and pop who struggle every day to pay the rent, to pay PG&E, and to pay water. What is the city going to do to help them out? It is my understanding that when it was

changed, a lot of those business suffered. And that's just a couple of years ago. And now we are going to go back and to ask those business along the King's Canyon corridor, Ventura, California corridor to absorb yet another expenses. And so moving forward, I'm glad that the city of Fresno, the main corridor that connects West Fresno to Southeast Fresno, is going back to its original street names, Kings Canyon to the east, Ventura downtown, and Calvin to the west. But at the same time my focus now is what about the small business owners who again have to suffered have to find the extra money for licensing changes not only for the state county but local uh level as well. And so yes we talked about you the victim must not be silent. We talked about this has to be out there, but the city of Fresno has to deal with reality moving forward. And I for one am going to talk to the constituents, business owners to see what we can do as a city to make it as less painful as possible that this does not hit their bank account like it did. And so I'm uh fully support the renaming of this corridor back to its original three uh distinct names, Kings Canyon, Ventura, and Kellivan Avenues. Thank you.

Council member Richardson. I'm here. Quick question, just kind of a poll the audience. If you're here specifically about the street renaming item, you just give me a little show of hand just out of curiosity. Okay. All right. Absolutely. Okay. Second question of those people who just raised your hand, raise your hand if you are here to keep it or wanted it to be Scissor Chavez Avenue. I wasn't.

Okay. For the majority of you who didn't raise your hand, it was before my time has I just want to say sorry. Apolog I'm sorry. I'm sorry you went through whether you're a small business, whether you're tied to the community over there. You didn't ask for that. I'm sorry. I don't know if you hear that a lot from the government, but I I I see you. You're seen. I don't have a lot much more to say. My district is in Northeast Fresno. District 6 will, as it was before me, support these names for your street. That's all.

All right. Thank you, council member. Any other council members punched up? I think everyone's for the most part spoken. Um, you know, today the council has an opportunity to to stand with survivors, and I think based on the comments here, uh, we're going to do, uh, going to do just that. Last couple days, I think, have been a whirlwind for a lot of folks. uh in particular for the farmworker community or families who have been part of the farmworker community, for the Latino community uh at large. Um you know, as as a first generation American um uh you know, growing up and and having us, you know, being taught certain lessons and history, uh and to find out that, you know, that's in a way it own way tainted um really is heartbreaking. It it's heartbreaking, but uh you know, I think this council and a lot of other leaders across California and the nation are hopefully going to put on a master class in what accountability looks like. Um and very glad to co-sponsor this and glad to have a lot of my colleagues in in support. Um and so I won't I won't uh I won't take up the microphone time too much because I know we have a lot of public comments. We have a stack of cards here. Uh so if you submitted a card already on this issue, thank you so much. Uh if you are here and would like to speak on this issue, I would ask that you please do fill out a a yellow card and drop them off with our clerk here at the the basket. The yellow cards are in the back. Um but while you and there's plenty of time because I've got a good stack of cards here, but we will open the public comment for uh the special meeting item. Uh the first card I have uh is Desiree Ledesma. Thank you again. Thank you again, Council President. Congratulations. I was wondering about Kabasi, why he resigned. I'm not sure how that goes.

Thank you guys so much. Um, with the whole sex offender thing, the victims I believe 100% and stand with Anna Lisa Pereira on that completely. It takes so much time to come forward um when you are a victim of crime. So I uh vict sex offense. There's hardly any evidence if you're if you are a victim of these type of offenses. So I 100% believe Dolores Weta's claim and I'm proud of everyone here that made the decision quickly to remove uh Chavez's name from our streets. Um I was I'm here today to propose an opportunity to let's not go back completely to everything, but let's actually elevate Fresno. Let's have a use this as a positive chance to elevate a black woman of color who is very pronounced who's very accomplished throughout the United States. I would say even the most successful African-American black American in all of the United States, even above Oprah Winfrey, and that is Audrey McDonald. And if you don't, and we do have her on M Street, right as it crosses King's Canyon by the Soran Theater, right, right above the M, just a tiny little dead-end street. We have Audrey McDonald. But just to share with you some of her accolades, her father, uh, Stanley McDonald is my principal at Hoover High as well. Um, Audrey McDonald, um, she has won six Tony Awards and she's black American. She went to Roosevelt High School. Um, she's not ashamed to be from Fresno. She does, she does this, she claims this all the time. She comes back to Roosevelt and spends hours of her own time to talk to the theater students there and and it's open to the public. I had the privilege to attend last year. So, six Tony awards. That's the equivalent of an Oscar. And she ho she holds the record um around the world of all time for holding the most Tony's, six of those. Um she was inducted into the theater hall of fame by President Obama. Um that was in 2016. um she has the highest award um the highest award honors that

you can achieve in arts and that's a national medal and so she's also won two Grammys and one Emmys and this is Audrey McDonald and I'm posing that we change King's Canyon in honor of her and to elevate her and use this opportunity especially with the stigma we have against black people or people are opposing um because we are you know oppressing the black. This is a a predominant successful black woman in our time and she's still still reaching. She's still reaching. She's still climbing. She's not going back. And I think this is an opportunity to elevate her. She deserves more than just a corner right there by the Seroran Theater on M Street. And that cross is King's Canyon right there. That'd be perfect just to carry her name Audrey McDonald all the way down because guess what? People in District 5 where I live hardly ever had the chance to go to King's Canyon National Park. It is a beautiful park, not as beautiful as Euseite, but guess what? How many time most of us don't have cars? We don't have buses and we're not going to make it to King's Canyon. Maybe in our midlife, but we're not going to have the opportunity to go there. But guess what? When I look up at like in my when I was at Hoover High and my friend who actually made it on Broadway, um Saul Audrey McDonald told me his shoe was when I look up at that.

Thank Thank you, Desiree. Our next speaker is going to be Olga Va Olga. Olga with us. Hi, my name is Sulabay and I'm a former compassina. I worked since about 11 years old in the fields and um and I was fairly happy with the gains we had made to name this rename the the street. It had taken us more than 30 years and it took a lot of work. More than half of Fresno is Hispanic and many of us are farm workers and it is heartbreaking. I'm not defending sister, but I think and maybe because I'm a teacher, um I look at it as a as a teaching moment that we do need the sign up there. We do need to let our children know that they need to be careful. Most of the time the curriculum that is provided for Fresno Unified School District teachers are is not taught and it has to do with them being careful around strangers or even family members. And I know this is discrimination because as a Fresno Unified School

teacher, I stood up. I raised my voice for those children and the the the girls I had because they wore t-shirts with emblem or anything. The principal sexually harassed them. As soon as they'd see him walk in, they covered their chest. So, and one of these board members was part of that. He defended him. And I take it so to heart that I was bullied. I was harassed because I stood up for the children. Not only children with special needs, but also because they were being harassed. This is discrimination because it the news just came out yesterday probably and uh and we're changing the name today. Yes. These people think that they're all happy because they saw another Mexican be drugged in the dirt. And you know what he did? He was a lot more than that. He inspired us to go get higher education. We're doctors, nurses, teachers amongst all all walks of life in the education. We are not the same compes we were when we were little. He inspired us and you you this is I'm not defending him. I'm not defending him. I too am a survivor of a not of that of Cesar Chavez but others because in the families these things happen.

Thank thank you for your comments Olga. Thank you. Olga, we're I have to ask you to wrap it up. Thank you. Our next uh speaker is going to be Hester Hensley.

You have three minutes. Good afternoon, council. And I just want to say thank you to my I just really thank you for what you the compliments that you gave. And Georgian, you know, I love you. But I'm just going to say I'm just wanted to say we all been farm workers. I worked we worked hard in the fields way back in the 40s 40s we worked my family worked but to say that we're not trying to take anything from Mr. Chavez, we asked years ago when this first started back in 2023, use another avenue. Why take what's already here? I also stated, and Georgin, I believe you was here, that back in 1993 when this first got started, when Mayor Jim Patterson was mayor, he said it didn't make sense then. And when I stood here in March of 2023, I said the same thing. If it didn't make sense in 1993, what sense did it make to change it in 1923? You remember that? Okay. What sense did it make? We just asked to use other avenues. You took California. That was my alumni. Edison High School. My family attended Edison from 1949. And I still have family in Edison High School. Okay.

So that's my alumni. So that's what hurt. I'm not trying to take anything away from Mr. Chavez. I just wanted to try to keep what belonged to us. And I not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, but I just said that if it didn't make sense then, it definitely don't make sense now. All I'm going to say now, and I'm going to sit down, is that A lesson learned.

Is a very expensive lesson, but we learn. When it don't make sense, council, vote it out. Just simple as that. If it don't make sense, it didn't make sense to change all them streets when you could have you could have changed Peace Street. But anyway, have a nice evening. Thank you.

All right. Our next speaker is going to be uh Desona Monaet Ricks. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Dr. Dana Monae Ricks and I am a proud resident and community advocate representing children and families in district 3 in area 1. I'm also a candidate for Freso Unified Board Trustee Area 1 Edison Region. First, I want to acknowledge that the ELM resone being tabled demonstrates the power of community voice. Res West Fresno did not ask for this, nor does the community need this. Second, I want to express gratitude for the courage and bravery of Dolores Werta for speaking her truth and putting service at the forefront of her legacy. No child, no woman, no man deserves this type of treatment. And anyone who is guilty of it needs to be held accountable. and anyone who is defending any of this needs to be held accountable. Also, third, I want to thank the council for deciding to take down the Caesar Chavez signs and restore the original street names back to their rightful place. Families in our district and city want assurance that the messages we elevate publicly align with safety, respect, and dignity for women, children, and families. Protecting our children must remain at the center of every decision we make as a city. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Our next speaker is going to be Diane Glenn. And again, if you'd like to speak on this special meeting item regarding the signs, please fill out a yellow card in the back. Bring it up to the little basket up front. Hello everyone. First, I'd like to get an homicide. My name is Diane Glenn. I'm originally from Fresno. Um, I would like everyone to know my family uh migrated to Fresno from Oklahoma. Pastor Rick is my aunt, my mother's baby sister. She's the last of nine of my mother's family. There were nine of them. We were all farm workers. My mother came out here when she was 14 years old. Her dad was a farm worker. Uh we pick grapes, cho cotton, uh black people, we were farm workers. My dad was a farm worker. We raised cattle and pigs and we owned farms out in the uh out on Valentine. Uh my brothers were athletes here in Fresno. I worked here 30 years as a postal worker and correction officer. Um we worked hard here in Fresno. And um there I would like to say speak on Edison High School. There's a lot of black athletes that came out of that school and I see Sav Caesar Chavez face on that high school and I I drive by there and I understand why cuz he didn't make any contributions to that school. Um I know Ricky Manning, Charles Young, Tim McDonald, my cousin Gisha Ricks.

I don't see any of their faces on that high school. And they made many contributions to that high school. Um, what contributions did Caesar Chavez make to Edison High School? And why isn't there faces on that high school? There were many black athletes that came out of that high school, professional athletes. And I don't see any of their faces on that high school. Why? I'm asking here first cuz I've asked there before. I've signed petitions. I prayed about it. And I thank God those women came forth. There's power in prayer. My auntie has been fighting years. God is good. That's all I want to say. All right. Thank you. Uh next uh speaker we have we have uh Laura Berto. You're you're up. Goto Gomez. While uh while he walks up, I did get a a couple cards for other items that were tabled. So, I did want to reiterate to the public that both the uh the Central Southeast Pacific plan as well as the Elm Avenue uh item were both tabled for for later dates in case you were here awaiting that item. Just as a reminder,

welcome to you have three minutes. In one of the meetings uh that uh we got the honor that uh council member Perea was in parliament and I told everybody that I was out of politics and and it's true I even forgot my English and my Spanish because I'm becoming you know but the decision that you guys are making I was going to plead with you guys you know but I know that whatever I do say we lost whatever I do say and he bother me because knowing says that I'm not here to defend him but I was with the UFW for 25 years then I moved to the labors and it really bothers me that within 48 hours you guys are making a decision that it took us several years to come to the conclusion that we were going to name the Caesar Chavez Boulevard. And like I say, whatever I say that you guys already made the decision. I can see the signs and it bothers me because I knew that Caesar was fighting for you guys also to be where you are. I know that he under his leadership, I'm not defending him. not defending him but I want to defend the legacy that he uh created among us. Thousands of thousands of people like me farm workers we grew up with him. We grew up under the Lores Werta under Gilbert Padilla which he was which is the husband of

Esther Padilla a prior uh city council member here and Fresno has a lot of history about the UFW. So I just want to make sure that we don't play with the his dignity. what he did was totally wrong, was ugly, uh but he's done. He's he's dead. Why revive him now? Give us some time. If it took 40 years or whatever you guys decide to discover that he did what he did, why you guys don't wait a little longer until you get all the facts? That's what is bothers me that you guys came to a conclusion right away and it bothers me a lot a lot you know. So that's what I want to say. I don't want to go into any other details because otherwise you have to remove the names of President Lincoln. A lot of people that used to have his slaves and they used to do with their slaves whatever they want. Thank you for your comments. All right. Thank you.

Uh, next speaker is going to be Sarah Pilibos. Sarah. Good afternoon. Thank you very much. My name is Sarah Pilibos. I'm here to represent the businesses that we uh and the property that we own that is located on what was Caesar Chavez and what had been and it appears will be again East King's Canyon Road. The purpose of my presence here is not to say anything for or against the name change. My my purpose here today is to reiterate my previous objections as a business owner and a property owner and a representative of over 30 businesses, most of which are owned by uh non uh American-born business people and family business operations that were never properly notified, including ourselves, never properly addressed. We never had the opportunity to discuss or iterate our position nor hear an iteration iteration of the position of the council at the time of its intention and a timeline and a rationale codified or not of a name change that had a significant and unknown impact. on each of these businesses, each of the owners, their employees, and the time and the money and the fear that it created to them for reasons unknown. What is happening today is exactly what

happened when the name was changed in the first place. It was capricciously and and frivolously decided amongst the council and then notified through the press of the intention of another name change. Whether it is this name or another doesn't matter. I think my time is up. I'm not sure. Not yet. Okay, I'll go on. Still have about a minute.

I think you get the point. Any future change of any street that impacts an owner, a resident or a business should be codified. And whenever that change is made, that code should be a part of the motion that it be followed and the owners and the recipients of that change respected and communicated with the dignity, transparency, and accountability that you're all expressing today. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is going to be uh Paul Jamu. Uh sorry, forgive the Jamushia. Jamushian there. That's an N, not a Y. Thank you. Karbashi can pronounce it, so I'm okay. Um, the hypocrisy that I'm seeing here is absolutely amazing. To try to force onto this body that it's about the farm worker is simply a facade. This is not about the farm worker. Uh, Reverend Lewis's folks would come to these meetings and they were very receptive to honoring the farm worker with the names, but not on their street. That's what this was all about. They did not want their street name changed. Don't make it the facade you're trying to make that it's about the farm worker. People care about the farm workers. What they don't want is changing their addresses. And if you try to force that off on us, shame on you. You wanted to f make something down our throats that the people did not want. We respected the farm workers. We're happy for them. Now you're embarrassed because of what took place with Chavez. Don't make it that the farm worker is the reason. It isn't. They don't want their addresses changed. Thank you.

All right. Next speaker, uh, Guadalupe. Gracias. Thank you. Buenos. Good afternoon everyone. Lupe Gutierz Jr. This is very painful what's happening today. We all have our own feelings. continue to represent the farm workers. It could be named United Farm Worker Street. It does not have to change back to the names that you're suggesting again. You speak that you're supporting the farm workers. That's what I'm asking you. Gracias. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh so the last card I have up here uh for this item is going to be Pastor BT Lewis. Again, if you would like to speak on this special meeting item, uh sign a yellow card and bring it on down to the clerk. Uh but uh pastor, come on down. You assume I'm tall?

Uh good afternoon everybody. Thank you um for this time today and uh I want to first thank you for uh your consideration and your decision to revert the street names back to King's Canyon, Ventura, and California. Can y'all put that Ventura back up so when I go back I could take a picture, please? Okay, good. Thank you. Um uh I want to thank you for that and I want you to know that I am uh deeply empathetic. uh about uh the things that have happened or come out recently. Um I I'm I'm not celebrating your pain. I I'm I'm I'm uh u we have relationships. Uh, and I I want you to know that uh I'm not celebrating what uh the effect that those that kind of news uh can have on your community and the people in your community. And I want you to know I empathize with you. Um I I'm I'm not, you know, I'm not excited about that. Uh but um uh I I do I am of course pleased that the name change uh will go back to uh Kings Cany and Ventura in California because many people um don't even they don't know the history of why Cal why does California matter and so it really takes a conversation to really understand that. Uh, another thing I want to um uh mention is that um uh I I I also support the recognition of of farm workers uh in our community. I support that. I um uh as many people have said our our culture has a history of being farm workers forced from the continent of Africa into this country uh

to be farm workers. And even uh after slavery was uh symbolically abolished uh uh people were shipped here from the south uh to be farm workers. And so very empathetic. The neighborhood that I serve in as pastor is uh very uh farm worker oriented. And so uh wanted to say that as well. Uh this is this has not been about race for me and not about about race for the people that I've worked with. This has been about uh our desire to preserve the historical names of the streets in our community, the names that we grew up around. And so I wanted to reassure you that that's not the case. I think this is an opportunity for us to uh uh uh work together to continue to build relationships. And uh this is an opportunity to uh let you uh let those of you who are of uh our Latino community in particular know uh that uh uh we uh we love you. We hold you in high regard and and that this is an opportunity to support you uh during uh this very serious time in your community. And uh uh we're looking forward uh last statement. We're looking forward to end.

I'm sorry, pastor, but we appreciate you, but we have to be fair to everybody. Yeah. Thank you. Uh our last speaker here is Marshall Migan. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the council, and other officers. Um, I want to thank the council for reverting these names back to their original names. Like the lady before me said, the nice lady said, if it didn't make sense then, it doesn't make sense now. And the reason it didn't make sense for the Armenian community back when this first came up was that King's Canyon and Ventura have incredibly deep emotional connections to us for the addresses that are along there. The churches, the buildings, the businesses, the homes. Those all are memories for us when we came to this country, genocide survivors, trying to build a new life, a new community. And we did it in downtown Fresno in the Armenian community. And then we started moving out from there. If you look at these buildings, Holy Trinity Armenian Church, the crown jewel, a crown jewel if you will, of downtown Fresno for architecture and for religion. The Opades Club next to there where William Soyan did time and held court. when the Armenians started moving out from the Armenian town in the 1930s and 40s and 50s along King's Canyon along Ventura to the point where they were at the Armenian home for the aged at the end of King's Canyon. Those streets mean something to us. Something else that's meaningful to me is my own grandmother's history. when her father died in the during the depression, she and my great-grandmother went to Emeryville to work in the Del Monte Canaries when the Catholic of all Armenians came to Fresno either the last time or the time before and was driving out to either Fowler or Yetm and the the farm

workers, the Hispanic farm workers lined the roads and took their hats off to honor the Armen the head of the Armenian church. There's a strong connection between all of us here. There has to be a strong connection. There has to be a mutual respect and just by fat changing names as it was didn't sit well and it hurt and those names have meanings to us. Should farm workers have water and breaks and shade? Absolutely. What human being would not think that? But when our history is replaced with someone else's, there's a problem there. This is an old community. There's a lot of people here, a lot of communities here. and coexisting is certainly a good way that we can all live together and respect each other. Changing those names just recently showed no respect and no cohesion. Taking it back to way it was California Avenue, Ventura, Kings Canyon, I think we'll do a lot of good and I thank you all for doing the right thing.

All right, I do not have any more yellow cards. Is there any additional public comment from uh anyone who has yet to speak on this particular special meeting item? Welcome.

Um I'd like to um agree with what some had said about this wasn't about um so much the whole Caesar Chavez or farm workers or not recognizing them. Let me do that. But um yeah, I um finished my high school at what adult school. So it's Caesar Chavez adult school even though it doesn't really say that on the diploma. So I think there was enough things like already in a way. And um when they had the whole name change, it's what 2 three years ago. I mean come on. Like I still I think a lot of people still call it King's Canyon even though it's been that change for two three years. I know I do. And um this is more about doing what you guys wanted to do and the public said at the time that they you guys didn't hold meetings like you should have. So basically it's just to what you do all the time like most every meeting do what you want and so you're going to act like you're like ashamed about what you've done or take it back or something but you can't. You've done what you've done and just like we've been waiting for public comment. You want to put us off like how you do a lot of a lot of these things you guys do are illegal. There was not a process followed anyways. what you're doing is illegal. Do you understand? So maybe I should have insurance about decisions you make because it's not fair when we got hell of litigation because of decisions you guys make. And maybe if you care about stuff so much, maybe why don't you do your own research? I know I read a few hours a day. Why don't you try it? Thank you, Nick, for um doing your homework. And that made sense when you said that um there's something the moral turpitude and stuff like that with this, right? See, he did his work. Don't. It's not up to you just to decide what you want and throw it off on Andrew. You guys need to stop doing that.

All right. Any further public comment on the special meeting item regarding the changing of the signs from people who have not spoken yet? I believe you've spoken. I'm sorry. Yeah, we're not doing double double takes. is we're still on public comment for the special meeting item regarding the changing of the Caesar Chavez Boulevard signs. All right, go on once. Go on twice. All right, we're going to go ahead and close the public Oh, okay. I don't know why you waited till the last second. Yeah, come on down. Thank you.

Hi. Um I don't usually talk but I do attend and I'm more of an observer. Um and what I have observed is that people come to city council meetings and they share their opinions, their ideas and often they are dismissed. I think that coming in today some of the council members have already decided what they want to do and to my understanding that's not how this is supposed to work. To my understanding, people come to community or come to engage in civic discourse for you to take in that information, process it, and try and make a decision that reflects the community. So in my opinion to move forward with any decision today would be irresponsible because we have heard names such as Audrey McDonald, we have heard Dolores Wera, we've heard the United Farm Workers, you know, all of these different ideas for these street names. Um there's another one that I wanted to highlight because this is what somebody sent me. Um WLCH Boulevard. Well, Melch is the indigenous name for the King's River, which is the King's River. So, King's Canyon was named after the King's River, right? King's Canyon. And that was a name given by colonizers. So, if we're talking about going backwards and, you know, trying to represent this area, that is another idea, going back to the indigenous name. So, I I wanted to share that. Um, I think the thing that I want to land the most is that going forward today would be irresponsible and that we should take a little bit more time because you guys just posted this 24 hours ago. That's not even even enough time for people who don't speak English to get that message. Have they has this been spread in Mong?

Has it been spread Spanish? I actually don't know the answer. That's a real question. But that's my thoughts. Thanks. Okay. Any additional public comment on the special meeting item regarding the changing of Caesar Chavez Boulevard signs?

All right. We're going to go to close public comments on the special meeting item. I have the city attorney punched up. I think it would be uh council president just um helpful to the public and and maybe this is my fault because I I uh assisted in drafting this. Um just to be clear, we're not approving the sign change today. What we're doing is directing administration to begin the process, a process which will include at least two hearings and public noticing. And so this uh resolution directs staff to begin the transparent process and in the renaming. And there will be plenty of opportunity for the for the residents, the business owners, and the community to have input um in terms of the name change, proposed name change.

All right. Thank you for that clarification. Uh council uh sorry, city attorney uh council member Carbassi.

Yeah. And thank you all the public for their discussion. Uh it was very helpful. I learned a lot uh that I didn't know about Fresno. Uh even though I've been here all my life, there's always a lot to learn. I want to make a motion to approve this item. We have a motion from council member Karbosi, a second from council member Aius. Um I don't have anyone else uh punched up at at this point. Um appreciate the comments from everybody. Obviously it's a it's a tough heavy uh issue for for everyone. Another point of clarification, I think we heard some uh some suggestions for other other names um in addition to support for the original signs. And uh the reason we the resolution is directing towards the original signs is because again we we currently retain about 80% of those uh we're only going to have to purchase another 20%. So from a cost effectiveness perspective uh and also from just a speed a speed perspective uh this was the the path of least resistance uh in addition to the uh the community support for the original signs. So, um, you know, you know, this is stuff no one could have known or imagined, uh, this would happen the last couple days. Only those folks who were deep on the inside of of the, uh, the years of work, journalism that that went into it. So, appreciate you all bearing, uh, with us. Appreciate the council uh, support and and swift response and and action. Um, and with that, I will uh I'll call the question. Is there any opposition to the special meeting item? Seeing none, the special meeting item passes 7 to zero. Thank you all for participating. Uh with that, we're going to adjourn the special meeting uh at this point and and we're going to revert back to the original uh the the regular meeting, today's regular meeting. And I believe what we have remaining on that agenda is

unscheduled communication along with close session u a lot of close session items probably a couple hours worth. So we'll go ahead and take uh take in the um unscheduled communication. President since we have some timesensitive legal issues can we go to close session first and come back for unscheduled? Is that an option? Guys, there's a lot on the agenda. public again.

You didn't listen then. You're not listening now.

I have a a request from the city attorney. We have a few expensive attorneys lying around for uh waiting around for a few items. So, we are going to do close session for just a few of the items, some of the low hanging fruit. We'll be back out here to do unscheduled communication as soon as we get those uh those three to four items out of the way.

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um go ahead and and take on the balance of the public meeting and that balance is the unscheduled communication. I don't think I see anything else that we missed. Uh so at this point we'll open uh it up for unscheduled communication, public comment on anything, not any specific item. Uh I don't I have a few cards with different random uh uh items, but I'll go I mean it's kind of a small crowd today, so anybody who would like to comment on unscheduled communication, just go ahead and and approach. Come on down. And you'll have uh three minutes. Uh, good afternoon. My name is Pastor Isabelle Vela. At the last meeting, public comment was delayed until the end. um sort of like today after multiple closed sessions and after most of the public had left. When it was finally heard, only two council members were present. Fresno requires four members for a quorum. Without a quorum, the public is not addressing the legislative body. Under California law, public comment must be meaningful, not symbolic. At the same meeting, both the city attorney and the city manager were present at neither intervening stop proceedings despite the absence of quorum. That raises serious concerns about the whether the city is operating in accordance with its own laws and procedures. It becomes an even

greater concern when during my inter interaction with law enforcement, a sergeant on video stated that his legal team advised him that I had no rights. So now we have a situation where the city's legal team is the the city's legal authority is presented during a meeting without a quorum and does not act and law enforcement is asserting that legal advice supports a denial of basic rights. Those are serious concerns. So I ask, how can the city expect the public to feel safe or be safe when the very systems responsible for upholding the law are not following it? At the same time, I went to address my arrest on February 6th. After notifying the city of federal action, I received a notice two days later calling my arrest lawful, but it left out critical facts. During that incident, I was told I had no rights and would be arrested for asserting my right to refuse entry without a warrant. officers entered and remained inside my home without a warrant and actually allowed a civilian, a neighbor, to enter my home without my consent. We have them on video standing in the middle of my living room discussing and I was denied medical attention, which I'm still seeking medical advice now. I have long-term no nerve damage. When public comment is diminished, laws are not followed, and law enforcement actions are not fully disclosed, it raises serious concerns about transparency, constitutional rights, and public safety. I am formally placing these facts and concerns on the record, and I request that they be preserved in full as part of the official minutes of this meeting. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, is there any additional uh, public comment for unscheduled communication? Come on down. Okay, let's see. I wrote this because sat here long enough and I just figured why not. Okay, time. My time. Okay, I wanted to say um that I really don't appreciate. Makes no sense. It's taking about like five, six minutes and you guys have the nerve to like really have us out here. I mean, you really don't care. I don't know what you're trying your aim is to get rid of people or something like that, but you're going to learn. I don't know how much you think you could do this, but this is very disrespectful. But hey, that's okay because um it just kind of like reinforces like what I'm thinking that you guys are nobody. But what I wanted to say is um I wrote this down. It says I want to say you guys are trying to keep people focused on this lady's story um because you need them to forget how this started in the first place. Violation of people's rights. you are in a position of trust, but you're going to do what you wanted to anyways. Do not use someone's harm to deflect the wrongs you've done. Okay? It's not going to happen. You and I wanted to also say is that when somebody cares or has interest in something, they're going to read about it. I don't know if you guys forgot about books or don't care to do that, partake in that activity, but you cannot keep on throwing whatever you want to do. Hey, Jans, why don't you go check for me? Go fix this for me. you can't do that. You guys must really not like him or just this is just one of those you guys are going to do whatever you want and oh hey check that because last I heard it came down to a third party um using AI and the judge deciding whether or not they're going to um find you guys, right? Something like that. A third party using AI. Okay, that's

and you guys have a team of people and there's only a few of us and hey, it. I'm going to use AI, but I'm always going to check my work, okay? I'm not an idiot. So, if you want to be an idiot, be an idiot. It's not this going to follow you, though. For whatever you run for next, this is going to follow you. So, yeah, you guys might want to um because this is like me, my kind of like it's not me, my best, okay? And when gets spit, things are going to change. And I just I just like to see how it's going to But yeah, you guys are pretty wrong. It's pretty up. You guys have out here this long.

All right. Thank you. Is there any uh additional public comment the audience? Anything else? Seeing none, going to go ahead and close the portion of unscheduled communication. That's going to conclude the public portion of the meeting. Uh we still have several um close session items, probably a couple hours worth more. Uh city attorney, do we anticipate any announcements following uh the balance of close session? Close session litigation?

No, council president.

Okay, great. Well, again, at this point, we're going to adjourn uh today's meeting. Uh again, we're going to adjourn the meeting in memory of uh the mayor's father, uh Don Dyer. Um and thank you all for tuning in. Heat. Heat. down. Hey