City Council - Regular Meeting

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All right. All right, council. All right, council. We're going to gather you all up onto the dis now. Get going here in a minute. ation followed by the pledge of allegiance. So I will ask everyone to please stand if uh if they can. Our invocation is going to be by Pastor Ron Herms from Butler Church. We'll welcome Pastor Ron on up.

Let's pray together. God, creator of life, light, and the source of all beauty and goodness, who funds the earth with enough resources and opportunities for all people. Who delights in the depth and diversity of the cosmos, who celebrates the discoveries and achievements of humanity when they are applied to the benefit of our communities. We pause this morning to give thanks for the gift of living lives of meaning in the world you sustain. God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, remind us here in the bountiful central valley that you make the rain fall in the sun to shine on all people regardless of race, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or personal accomplishments. You bless and delight in all people. God of all people, of our communities and our families, who grieavves over every lost life lost to violence, greed, and corruption. Who bears witness to the suffering of every human being and every living thing. Who hears the cries of those dispossessed, those forgotten, and those discarded by society. who calls out to us in the voices and stories of those marginalized and traumatized. We ask you to inspire the work of our hands and the work of this council with the vision of Isaiah 65. May we seek to organize and build toward a world where traumas no longer steal meaning and joy for any person. Where access to affordable health care and a promise of the vitality of life is possible for everyone. Where the prospect of building houses and living in them unencumbered is realistic. Where the expectation of abundant food resources and nourishment

is common. where honest labor is rewarded and equitable employment practices are the norm. Where children and families can enjoy a world without the horrors of violence, whether in the domestic settings of Fresno County or the streets of Kev, Gaza, Thrron, and Beirut, where your peace reigns over all creation. We ask that every member of this Fresno City Council would see themselves and their families as deeply loved and cared for by you. Would see in each other the gifts of collaboration and the challenge of differing perspectives. May they hear and learn from each other for the benefit of all residents of Fresno. that they would model for all Fresnants's gracious dialogue and generous accountability so that we could more perfectly live into the vision of Isaiah 65 for the flourishing of our families, communities, and the wider world. We pray all of this recalling the example of Jesus Christ who lived his life for the benefit of others. Amen.

Please remain standing. Council member Perea, would you please uh lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Fantastic. Uh so we're going to move on to the approval of the agenda. But before we do, uh city clerk, are there any changes or items removed from the agenda? Yes. Thank you.

First of all, I wanted to let attendees know that we do have interpreters available for today's meeting. We do have the wordly interpreters who are available for digital interpretation in Spanish and Punjabi. We also have virtual interpreters available in the Mong language as well as American Sign Language. Today's meeting will be adjourned in memory of Ronnie Young and Vernon Schmidt. With regard to changes to the agenda, item 2 ID24-415 regarding resolution acknowledging the receipt of a report prepared by the Fresno Fire Department related to the inspection of certain statemandated occupancies. The first sentence of the resolution states, "Whereas California Health and Safety Code section 13146.4 was added in 2018 and became effective on January 1st, 2029." However, it should be corrected to read, "Whereas California Health and Safety Code section 13146.4 was added in 2018 and became effective on January 1st, 2019." Items removed from the agenda. Item 2M ID26-226 regarding actions pertaining to Stantech Consulting Services Incorporated, a corporation based in Albany, New York to provide professional consulting services for a historic survey of Fresno's Chinatown was tabled to the May 7th, 2026 meeting by council member Arius. Items moved to contested consent for further discussion. Item 2G, ID 26-437 regarding actions pertaining to the North Granville Avenue Safety Improvements Project was moved to contested consent by council member Richardson. Item 2J ID26-503 regarding approve the first amendment to the lease agreement between the city of Fresno Parks after school recreation and

community services department by EBITC golf incorporated was moved to contested consent by council member Arius and council member Carbassi. That completes the changes to the agenda. All right. Thank you, city clerk. Uh council, any additional items you'd like to remove? Continue. Pull for pull from consent. I'll come in order. Uh, council member Perea. Council member Arus. Council vice president. Council member Vang. None. Council member Richardson. None. Council member Carbosi. None. Okay. Nice and easy today. All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve. Second.

First, second, and third. Uh, first by council vice president, second by council member uh Arius. Um, is there any opposition to approving the agenda? All right, seeing now we have an approved agenda. Uh, let's move into the uh the fun part of the meeting and that is our ceremonial presentations. I see a lot of folks here in the audience who are are here for that. Um, we'll take them uh in order for the agenda and our first one is going to be a proclamation for National Crime Victim's Rights Week that's sponsored by Vice President Maxwell.

Thank you, Council President. And can I get all my friends with James Roland and Chief Haynes to come join me up at the front at this time? Thank you. Chief, how you doing, sir? Good to see you. Thank you.

All righty. We'll have some of you come on over to this side. Even it out a little bit. How about that? Perfect. Alrighty. Well, good morning everybody. Um, this is never a proclamation that we like to give out, but it's one that's necessary to give out each and every single year. This is commemorating National Crime Victim's Rights Week in the city and county of Fresno. So much of our criminal justice system focuses on the criminal, right? Whether it's our police department, whether it's the courts or prison or jail, it focuses around the criminal. And in that process, something very important often gets missed and that's the voice, the rights and the restitutions of victims of those crimes, in particular, violent crimes. And many times they get forgotten and left behind. 45 years ago, Fresno County was the very first county to start a crime victim assistance center under uh then chief probation officer James Roland. And today uh you see the members up here and they do a fantastic job at what they do. It is not an easy job. It is often a thankless job. But last year alone they served over 5,000 victims and family members of victims across Fresno County alone. The small but mighty team helped divvy out over a million dollars and restitution benefits to victims of violent crime in our community. And I just can't say enough good things about these folks standing here behind me. They work day in and day out to help victims of assault, rape, domestic violence, and family members of those who have been taken from us. And every year they commemorate many of those folks uh with their annual quilt that they put together to honor the lives and stories of those that we have lost to violent crime. And they present it um here in downtown for everybody to

witness. and pay tribute to those lives that have been taken from us too soon. And so, it's really an honor for me to present this proclamation and raise awareness of all the good work that this team does. It again, it's not a team that you want to meet, but if you ever are in the situation to where you are at the James Roland Crime Victim Assistance Center, you know that you are truly in the best of hands because they do God's work each and every single day. And so I want to pass it over uh to their great leader, Chief Haynes, to talk a little bit more about what this week and what this department means to him.

Thank you so much uh Vice President Tyler Maxwell. Um I want I'm Kirk Haynes. I'm your chief probation officer for Fresno County and uh I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to present um to the Fresno Council. We know that um some you know our council and our mayor um president Esparza very um supportive of the work that we do. Um and I think you did it you know very well council member uh Maxwell but you know he is a homegrown um he was one of our victim advocates at one time and so he really does um embrace the work that we do and and so we're so thankful for that. I did have a couple of prepared words um that I did want to say because I did not want to forget anything, but I do have some prepared words today. Um but first before I do that, I want to introduce um Karen Roach, who is the assistant deputy chief um who oversees our uh our program over at the Crime Victims Assistance Center and also deputy chief Rosalinda Costa who is also here along with a portion of our staff. We don't have all of us here today, but um but also kind of basking in the glow of yesterday where we um instead of doing our quilt unveiling, which we would we do every other year, but last night we were able to do our um our honor walk um and public relations event. And so I'll let Karen talk a little bit more about that. Um but just to give a little bit of background, every year um this year's theme for crime victims uh rights recognition week is listen, act, and advocate. It reminds us of why we're here. When we come together to listen, act, and advocate on behalf of victims as pieces of a puzzle, we form a community of support that helps provide healing and for the uh victims to be able to move forward. This theme aligns powerfully with the work being done each and every day by the folks over at the uh James Roland Crime Victims Assistance Center. As noted in the proclamation, in two 2025 alone, SVAC has uh served more than 5,000 crime victims throughout Fresno County and the

city of Fresno, continuing its mission to provide a voice for victims and ensuring that those harmed by crime receive the compassion, justice, and the resources that they deserve. National Victim's Crimes Week is a time not only to honor survivors and remember victims, but also to recognize the advocates, the probation officers, volunteers, community partners, and yes, all of you who come together as those of that piece of pieces of that puzzle. So, I want to say thank you to Council Member uh Maxwell um and this council for its ongoing commitment to victims of crime and for once again proclaiming this important week in the city of Fresno. Your recognition reinforces the value of this work and the message that healing is a shared responsibility. And I just want to say thank you again to all of you for for being here. And uh and I can't say enough about this group of uh folks who are doing work um to help victims and their um families to be able to navigate the criminal justice system when it can be a tough tough place even in you know for for people like me who are really familiar. So again I want to say thank you again um vice president.

Appreciate you. Thank you so much. appreciate you and and Karen, you know, we got to embarrass you a little bit, put you on the spot. Can you get a little more information then also information to about if somebody themsel or somebody they love is a victim of a crime, best way to reach out and get services?

Um, yes, we you are able to find us how you would find anyone else. We're on the um we have a website. You can find us through um law enforcement, the county. So, we do have a website available for you to reach out to us. Um I also here am honored to be here for this proclamation. Thank you, Tyler, and thank you, city council, uh for honoring um and recognizing National Crime Victim's Rights Week. Um just a few of the staff that are here joining us dedicate their basically their entire professional life to this. Um this is a calling as both mentioned. This is not an easy job. Um day in and day out we're dealing with and working with um folks that have experienced probably something that the worst thing that has happened to them or a loved one or a family member um in their life. We're dealing with various crimes from homicide, fatalities, human trafficking, sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence, anything you can think of when um they come to us for valuable uh essential services. Each victim, survivor, family member has tailored services, not cookie cutter on depending on what their specific need is. uh are treated with respect, compare, uh compassion, um empathy and we walk alongside them as to whatever their journey may be. We don't dictate, we don't direct, we are um walking alongside whatever their path to healing may be. So representing that last night as chief said we had our annual public event which was our honor walk which symbolizes us walking along that path and that journey to whatever healing looks like for them and honoring and supporting them during their journey. Honoring those folks that are with me

tonight or today on the job that they do day in and day out as well as all of our um community members and uh service providers that assist us as well. So, law enforcement, service providers, uh families came out w with us yesterday to walk with and support of our victims and survivors. So, thank you for always honoring us. Thank you council members uh for this proclamation. Um it's not only for us, it's for the victims and survivors that we service day in and day out every single year. So, thank you.

Thank you. And then before we read the proclamation, Victoria, can you raise your hand real quick? My first boss when moving back to Fresno to home and she taught me so much about empathy and what it means to be a leader and a helper and a healer in our community. And Shirley, one of my very first friends when moving back to Fresno County. Thank you for everything that you taught me, too. I love you guys and I appreciate everything that you guys do. And if there's anything that we could ever do on the city side uh to be partners to help out, please, you know, never hesitate to reach out. Thank you guys and God bless you. And then I want to read the last part here before I hand it over to the city clerk. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer and the Fresno City Council reaffirm its commitment to respect and endorse crime victim's rights and address their needs during National Crime Victim's Rights Week and throughout the year. and do hereby proclaim April 19th through April 25th, 2026 as National Crime Victim's Rights Week in the city of Fresno. Thank you everybody. Whereas each April, National Crime Victim's Rights Week provides an opportunity to honor and recognize the strength, resilience, and voices of victims and survivors of crime in Fresno. And whereas first recognized in 1981, this annual observance has united communities for over four decades in support of healing, awareness, and justice. And whereas community members throughout the city and county of Fresno continue to be impacted by violent crime and deserve dignity, support, restoration, refuge, and justice. And this week calls upon us to pause, reflect, and recommmit to standing alongside victims and ensuring their voices and stories are heard. And

whereas when any community in this city or throughout the state is harmed by crime, the effects are felt across families and neighborhoods. and serving victims while rebuilding trust helps restore hope not only for survivors but for the community as a whole. And whereas the Fresno County Probation Department's James Roland Crime Victim Assistance Center continues to provide a voice for victims and muchneeded services, advocacy, and support to victims and witnesses of crime throughout the county of Fresno. And whereas under the guidance and direction of the Fresno County Probation Department's James Roland Crime Victim Assistance Center, more than 5,100 crime victims were served in 2025. And historically, over 1 million in state compensation funds are received annually by victims of crime in Fresno County, reflecting the invaluable role these services play in supporting recovery and stability. And whereas during the week of April 19th through April 25th, 2026 and throughout the year, Fresno County joins together to observe National Crime Victim's Rights Week to reaffirm its commitment to protecting victim's rights, supporting their recovery, and ensuring their needs are met with compassion and care. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer and the Fresno City Council reaffirm its commitment to respect and endorse crime victim's rights and address their needs during National Crime Victim's Rights Week and throughout the year and do hereby proclaim April 19th through April 25th, 2026 as National Crime Victim's Rights Week in the city of Fresno. All right. Thank you. Our next proclamation is going to be National Apprenticeship Week 2026 packed and that's uh sponsored by Council Member Perea.

All right, good morning everyone. Um, up here with me I have Chuck Rios, pre-apprenticeship construction training, building trades and construction council. Um, Dave isn't here, is he? No.

No. Um, we have Sam Norman with the Rio's company and Ashley Matthews with the Fresno Regional Workforce Development Board. U, but today we're here to recognize something that has helped to make um, strong communities. We are here to recognize um how we make the built environment possible each and every day, not just here in the Central Valley, but um beyond our borders. And that's to recognize National Apprenticeship Week 2026. Now, what I appreciate about the people that are before next to me today is the intentionality of the work that they do. These are jobs, yes, but they're building careers. They're helping to make um the middle class strong in our community. They're helping to hopefully intercept young people from going down a pathway that they should not be going down. And they're giving them real opportunity. Um what I one of my favorite programs is the Valley Build Now program, which is a program that is intentionally structured to uplift women into the construction trades industry. and um knowing what it's like to be in a an industry that historically has been dominated by men, I think it's really important to uplift women into areas that they have never been before. And so I want to thank you all for the good work that you're doing, not just for women, um but for our young people as well, to the point where these training programs are now modeled all across the country. And so, um, you're leaving a huge footprint in the construction trades industry. But I'm going to pass the mic on to Sam and then Chuck just to say a few words about the good work you all are doing.

Thank you. U, one of the things that we've been at this for like 15 years and the program is a a model for the state of California and we're in 14 counties that we're actually doing training. But one of the things that I like about it is that we've actually changed lives. And I what comes to mind is an individual, one individual who was in jail for over 10 years, came out of jail. He had tattoos all over his body. His tattoos had tattoos. Um he came out, he put in 150 applications for employment, couldn't find a job. his probation officer directed him to our program. He was actually a a a uh the leader of his class, got employment. Uh his family came to the graduation. There were tears everywhere. The program changes lives and we're very proud of it.

Good morning everybody. Thank you Ana Lisa. Thank you to the council for this recognition. Um, I've had the good fortune of representing labor, uh, for 39 years now, um, in many capacities. I come out of the electrical workers union, uh, had the great honor to lead the building trades council for the past 13 years. And in that journey, um, Samuel Norman here saw a deficit in apprenticeship and things that we weren't doing. And so he told me about pre-apprenticeship and I can tell you a long story about that. But um he um because of his stick tuitiveness uh we created a pre-apprenticeship program. Uh and like they say it is a model for the state. It has been taken across the nation. I'm happy to lead it. Um, it is really the honor of my career to set forth a pathway for the young men and women of this community to gain access to apprentichip. I am a product of apprenticeship and and everything that I have um in my life, my wife, my children, my grandchildren is benefited because of my apprenticeship within the trades. And so I'm happy to bring about the information, happy to bring about the program uh that will continue that legacy uh after I retire. Um we're working our way into the school districts, into the colleges, to the high schools, to the junior highs. Um really there's no end in sight. There's a lot of work to be done. Uh but happy to do it, but definitely appreciative of the recognition uh by the city.

Hi, good morning. My name is Ashley Matthews and I am representing the Fresno Regional Workforce Development Board. Um I am the operational manager that oversees the Valleybuild Partnership um that uh works with PAC to put on these uh pre-apprenticeship programs. Um I just want to thank uh Council Member Perea and the rest of the Fresno City Council for your continued support and leadership of these programs. Uh for the last six years, I have watched this program, as uh the council member mentioned, grow from our single campus here in Fresno to a 14count model that is now um a uh a pillar for the state and for nationally recognized programs on how to get individuals into apprenticeship. Uh, also as mentioned, we do have a all female cohort and we're actually recruiting for our fifth all-female cohort to begin this May in partnership with Pacted and Fresno City College. Uh, we're incredibly proud of the work that we've done. We know apprenticeship changes lives. It moves families out of poverty and into sustainable uh, careers. And uh, we are incredibly grateful to be able to do this work and we are grateful for your support. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Okay. So, before the clerk reads the proclamation, um I'm going to read this last part which reads, "Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer and the Fresno City Council members hereby recognize National Apprenticeship Week and commend PAC and its partners for their continued commitment to preparing the next generation of skilled workers and getting a little older. don't have my glasses and strengthening the Central Valley workforce and hereby declares the week of April 26 through May 2nd to be National Apprenticeship Week in the city of Fresno. Congratulations, city clerk. Whereas apprenticeships in the skilled trades provide a proven pathway to the middle class and packed pre-apprenticeship construction training incorporated a nonprofit arm of the Fresno Madera Kings and Taller Building Trades Council is dedicated to expanding access to training opportunities for young people particularly high school students. And whereas packed leaders believe more young people would pursue careers in the trades if they better understood the benefits. And the organization's mission is to promote educational and workforce opportunities for students, especially those in disadvantaged communities. And whereas the organization works to sponsor, encourage, and develop programs that foster education, job readiness, community development, and good citizenship while creating clear pathways into the skilled trades. And whereas apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs play a crucial role in strengthening the regional workforce as individuals who complete registered apprenticeships start a earn a starting salary of over $70,000 annually while contributing to a more competitive and resilient local economy. And whereas the training recognized around the country has evolved into the 14 county valley build partnership operating as an ongoing and largely state-f funed collaboration between regional building trades and

construction councils, regional workforce boards, the Rios company and other partners and also inspired the specialized valley build now non-traditional occupations for women program. And whereas we recognize the role of such training to expand the skilled workforce and provide opportunities to all communities, including those struggling with issues such as poverty, high unemployment, and in inequality. And whereas National Apprenticeship Week observed from April 26 to May 2nd highlights the importance of registered apprenticeships nationwide where more than 640,000 active apprenticeships are currently building careers in high demand industries helping expand our economic opportunity. Now therefore be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry P. Dyer, Council Member Analisa Pereah, and the Fresno City Council members hereby recognize National Apprenticeship Week and commend PAC and its partners for their continued commitment to preparing the next generation of skilled workers and strengthening the Central Valley Workforce and hereby declares the week of April 26th to May 2nd to be National Apprenticeship Week in the city of Fresno. All right, fantastic. Our next proclamation is going to be for Arbor Day and Tree Fresno and Arbor Day. Uh, this is sponsored by both the mayor, office of the mayor and city manager as well as council member Arius.

All right, this is good. So, we have a a dual proclamation today that we're doing, I believe. uh because we have Tree Fresno plus Arbor Day. It is National Arbor Day that we are recognizing. We have many of our public works folks that are standing with us today. Mona Cummings from um I was going to say your last name, but but we have a a number of folks that are standing here today, but I did want to say um a few things about uh National Arbor Day. Um, you know, really when you look around a community, it is so important um that we have trees and I I've had to get educated on this in terms of the benefit of of trees within a community. Uh but there are a lot of benefits and one of them is certainly that it it serves as a windbreak uh which um prevents the top soil from being uh eroded which is so important uh to to many of our shrubs and so forth within our community. Uh we all know it provides shade and uh it also beautifies uh neighborhoods to a significant degree. And in the urban environment, we know that whenever you plant uh trees within neighborhoods, property values go up. And every year I have the opportunity to go out and plant trees with our public works folks and uh the folks that we outsource to uh to do much of our tree planting. Uh but I am proud to say in partnership with council vice president Maxwell who came up with this initiative back when uh the two of us came in into city hall to plant uh a minimum of 1,000 trees a year in our city. That's new trees, not replacement trees. And I'm proud to say over the last 5 years we have planted just over 5900 trees in the city of Fresno.

And so, uh, it is it is my honor to be able to, uh, present this, uh, proclamation. And I know council member Aris is going to come up, uh, shortly and and speak to, um, Tree Fresno. Uh, but it's I want to read this last part. It says, "Now therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry Dyer, and members of the Fresno City Council, do hereby proclaim Friday, April 24, 2026 to be Arbor Day in the city of Fresno. Yep.

Thank you, mayor. I'm going to keep my comments short. Um, everybody knows Trees Fresno. They're celebrating 40 years and more than 50,000 trees planted in our region. But I I do want to take a moment and reflect as I am in my last year of service here at city hall. You know, there's a quote that reminds me in our conversation of trees. A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit. When I arrived at city hall, the average age of the council was, let's just say, they got a discount at Denny's. And for decades, they had been cutting public works budget to maintain and trim our trees to the point that the tree trimming cycle was 27 years for a tree, which as you know, that doesn't work. That's why we lost so many shade canopy in our city across across the years over the years in our in our community. And it was a council that got younger and younger. Now, I think I'm officially the oldest one on the group um behind Brandon, but this council with the support of the mayor has significantly increased the maintenance budget for trees in our city. We're now trimming every 5 years as we should be. And mayor pushed it down to 10. We're going to bring it back to five. Right, Mayor? Um but but but the key here is we're not only maintaining trees in better timelines, but we're planting thousands of new trees and we're replacing trees when they die. If you go down the path of Cedar Avenue, as I take my kid every day to daycare, I see all the trees that member Maxwell planted on Cedar, the medium island, and those trees are flourishing. And for generations, they're going to provide canopy for that neighborhood. If you go down Fresno High, the work that member Soya and member Prey have done on Vaness down Huntington Boulevard in the tower district up north on H. Hearnden, across the city, you see this community investing in the landscaping and the

tree canopy across every neighborhood. In southwest Freso, thousands of trees have been planted in downtown. The dead trees were replaced. And yes, there's always small battles with constituencies around. Can we not replace a tree? Can we just cement it over? It's a hassle to maintain. It drops leaves every season. But this city has stayed united to protect and grow the tree canopy in our community. And I want to thank the mayor and Scott Moer for working with our demands, but also Tree Fresno. Every time we need trees, we never have to debate who's going to pay for them cuz Tree Freszo consistently steps up and provides the trees and even the labor with volunteers to be able to do this work. So to all those old men, including this one here, thank you for planting trees that you may not sit under their shade, but future generations will. And thank you to our staff and to tree Freszo for protecting the generations of shade lovers in our community. Thank you all. So I'm Mona Cummings and I'm the CEO of Tree Fresno. Um our organization is turning 40 this year and the organization just a little bit of history for us here. Uh the city of Fresno and Tree Fresno have uh roots in uh in our organization in that the first activity that Tree Fresno did was have a teleathon on KC24 to raise money to plant trees for the centennial of the city of Fresno and that was back in 1985. So the organization at at that time, the people who ran it and founded it decided that there was enough interest in the community in planting more shade trees to beautify uh the community, to improve

water and air quality, to lower home temperatures, uh to improve property values, and to and to provide beautifification and better health benefits. that they would start an organization that uh people could come and plant trees with Tree Fresno. So since then we've planted 55,000 trees across the central Sanwaqin Valley with the help of community members and the funding that we've received over the last 12 years uh has come primarily through the state of California through uh California climate investments which is the state's cap and trade program. So with that, um, we've we've definitely provided trees for the city of Fresno, but also about 23 other cities, um, in the valley, and it's very exciting because it gives people the opportunity to spend more time outside, even when it's hot outside. It improves um, our rates of asthma and health related diseases. Uh, it improves water and air quality. It's really exciting to be a part of Tree Fresno. I have one of my board directors here, Joseph Martinez, uh, and also Carlen Jackson, who helps me to run Tree Fresno. We are two full-time people. So, when you think about Tree Fresno, understand that we work with the community, whether it's landscape contractors, our partners, for example, at City of Fresno, um, to be able to help us to accomplish um, utilizing millions of dollars in funding to make our community more beautiful and healthy. So, thank you so much, Mayor, um, and council member Aras, uh, for bringing forth this proclamation. The whole council, um, we are honored and we are looking forward to another 40 plus years working with our community here. Thank you.

Thank you, uh, Monum. And the guy on on our end that makes it all work, uh, is Scott Moer. He's a director of public works, and he has an incredible team. And it's not just about the trees. you got to get water to the trees and they have to put in all the irrigation, all the things and sometimes that's very very difficult when you're operating in a in a neighborhood that already has sidewalks in place and and the like. So, uh, Scott Moer.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I just want to say it's really for me an honor and a privilege to stand with this amazing, incredible, dedicated team uh, for the mission of Cara the urban forest. We uh we want to thank our mayor and uh Fresno City Council for the support uh in terms of funding, prioritization and personnel uh to really enable us to be the very best stewards of the urban forest that that we can be. Uh there's been a lot of discussion about the benefits we fully believe uh in the urban forest. Um and uh just want to highlight some of the efforts of the team. one uh uh successfully fulfilling that mission of the thousand net new trees, brand new trees planted every year on top of replacements. Uh we've been successful each year since the uh council adopted that resolution and goal. We're uh proud of that. Want to continue that effort. Um, also geobbased tree trimming and then uh and then all of the things behind the scenes uh that when we have a storm and uh it's the it's the wee hours of the night, there's a tree down blocking a road, blocking a driveway, uh this is the team that's out there um just doing that sometimes thankless job of uh keeping our residents safe and protecting the urban forest as well. So, thank you and for the chance to celebrate together.

Thank you, Scott. Clerk, if you'd please read the proclamation.

Whereas the Nebraska Board of Agriculture in 1872 established a special day to be set aside for the planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska when pioneers noted the lack of trees and their great need for shade, building materials, and windbreaks. This first Arbor Day built on earlier arbor festivals dated to the 16th century when the Spanish village of Mondonedto held the first known tree planting festival. And whereas first proclaimed by Nebraska's governor in 1874, Arbor Day by 1920 had spread to more than 45 US states and territories. Today, all 50 states celebrate Arbor Day, which is now observed throughout the world. And whereas trees can combat climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, cutting heating and cooling costs, moderating the temperature, cleaning the air, producing life-giving oxygen, and providing wildlife habitat. And whereas trees are a renewable resource, giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. And whereas trees in urban areas increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community. And whereas trees, wherever they are planted, are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry Dyer, and the members of the Fresno City Council do hereby proclaim Friday, April 24th, 2026 to be Arbor Day in the city of Fresno. Appreciate it.

All right. Fantastic. Our uh our last proclamation for the morning is going to be uh proclamation honoring financial literacy month and this is sponsored by the office of the mayor and city manager.

Thank you. Uh thank you council. If I if I could have Samolina please come up to receive this uh proclamation. Um you know the the timing of this is uh is perfect. Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak at what's called a finance park uh over at Freso State and they bring in high school students uh from throughout the uh Fresome County and it's for the purpose of educating them on finances and so I had the opportunity to speak with them yesterday morning and sometimes uh finances can be very uh overwhelming for people uh preparing a budget talking about mortgages talking about credit ratings and all those things uh and it's so important that we have people in our community um that can provide that financial education to people. And we know that with uh folks that do not have uh the the requisite education in finance, often times they find themselves in debt. They start spending more money than they make. And when that happens, it creates an incredible amount of stress not only on them but upon the entire family. And then it leads to uh housing insecurity, um financial instability and a number of things uh go with that. Um ultimately bad things happen in the family, right? And so uh we want to make sure that we have the groups in our community uh that are able to to provide that and this is one of the groups that that are with us today. Uh and I want to um at this time turn it over to Sam Molina. Sam.

Right. Thank you, mayor. And um good morning everyone. Uh as the mayor said, my name is Samuel Molina. I'm the CEO for the Academy of Financial Education. We are a local organization uh founded in 2023. We have been able to serve more than a thousand people through our financial literacy classes, but also our financial therapy program. Um these programs are essential because more than 90% of our financial decisions are driven by our emotions. And so these programs are designed to help people not only regain control of their finances, but also over their emotions as well. Um, so far we've been able to help hundreds of people rebuild their credits and again, you know, again, take control of those finances, create those budgets, and get into some financial stability. I'm going to uh turn it over to our board vice president, Noel Pal.

Thank you, Sam. I just want to say how much I really appreciate the work that Sam and the Academy of Financial Education is doing. Um, in our community, financial literacy is so impactful. The same way that a house shelters a home, financial literacy is the scaffolding for the way that individuals and families engage with the world, the perception, the perspective. And to that point, this investment that we make in financial literacy, in managing emotions, in making decisions that will be beneficial and build the right foundation for growth is so impactful for families today because it impacts future generations. Uh children don't come on to this world with a blank slate. They come on a platform of generational legacy and financial literacy for parents and for children and for everybody in that family unit. Managing those emotions and prior experiences impacts how we move forward in the future. Financial literacy directly impacts the stress level and dynamics within a family. Financial literacy directly impacts the strength of our communities. And financial literacy directly impacts the future of our city. I just want to say thank you to the city of Fresno for making this proclamation possible. Thank you, mayor, and all the work that we are doing as a group. So, I want to say thank you. And it is our job to we're here to serve you. We see you and we understand the importance of financial literacy. So, we are here to partner and work with all of you guys. And if you can share this information, that's what's going to help us help you. Thank you uh very very much. And the last thing I want to say is uh you know it's unfortunate that so many people today rely on credit cards uh to make uh their purchases. And credit cards are great if you pay them off in uh 30 days. Credit cards not so great if you um

allow that debt to accumulate because interest rates on credit cards are very very high and they're not meant for that. They're meant for uh convenience. And the other thing I think that folks don't realize is the importance of a credit score and in uh making sure um that they're paying off debt whenever it is due and they're not incurring too much debt. And when that happens, a credit rating goes down and ultimately interest rates go up and they're not able to get a loan for a car or anything of that nature. So I just want to encourage young people especially today. I wish we had that curriculum more and more in our schools, but we don't. uh but uh we can provide it with groups like this. So uh I want to read this last part. Says now therefore be it resolved that we mayor Jerry Dyer and members of the Fresno City Council do hereby proclaim April 26th to be financial literacy month in the city of Fresno. Thank you. Whereas mental health challenges continue to affect individuals and families throughout Fresno, often impacting motivation, productivity, academic success, and overall quality of life. And whereas housing instability, medical expenses, debt, income volatility, and other financial pressures can be a contributor to anxiety, depression, and chronic stress within our community. And whereas financial stability is recognized as an important social health determinant that directly influences mental well-being, educational attainment, workforce participation, and long-term economic mobility. And whereas empowering individuals to develop a healthier relationship with money strengthens household stability, reduces financial stress, and supports overall mental and economic well-being. And whereas financial literacy education, financial therapy, and mentoring services provide residents with practical tools to budget effectively, manage credit responsibly,

build savings, navigate financial systems, and make informed decisions that support long-term stability stability, excuse me. And whereas community- based organizations play a vital role in advancing financial education and fostering economic resilience throughout the city of Fresno. And whereas specialized organizations empower the community to cultivate a healthier relationship with money through financial literacy education, financial therapy, and mentoring services that promote lasting financial confidence and opportunity across the Central Valley. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, Mayor Jerry Dyer, and the members of the Fresno City Council, do hereby proclaim April 2026 to be financial literacy month in the city of Fresno. All right. Uh, so we're going to move on to council member reports and, uh, comments. I'll I'll go in order. Council member Perea, do you have any comments?

Yeah, just a few. Council President, thank you. Um, I want to start by thanking the National Hispanic Construction Alliance for their invitation to allow me to say a few words on the good work our city is doing in the arena of affordable housing within the city of Fresno. Um, also want to just give kudos to my team. My team and I have been everywhere the last couple weeks. Um, everywhere from Goldstein, it was the latest Beautify Fresno event. Um we had a team out there helping to clean up the tower district. We also joined the Kami New Year celebration um to celebrate the year of the horse. We presented proclamations at the ordination and consecration of the Reverend Dr. Gregory uh W. Kim Kimura as the sixth bishop of the Episcopal Dascese of Sanwaqin. And um part few of my team members ended the day by joining the Fresno Fire Chief's cornhole tournament. So, just want to thank my team for helping me to be everywhere at once. Um, this upcoming weekend, we have our second uh drive-thru. It's a free drive-thru for our kines. Um, we're offering free or no cost to you um vaccination and microchipping. So, this is a no cost to the community microchipping and vaccination event for our kines. This is going to be at Roing Park. Um, you can call my office at 621-7817 for more information or follow us on Instagram or Facebook where we have all the details about this upcoming event. Um, I want to thank the animal center for their partnership with this one. Um, we also have a crosswalk painting project coming up. This is going to be in Vaness Village on Saturday, May 2nd. So again, for more information, please find us on social media, but we're looking for volunteers to help us bring some um art installation to the uh

Vaness Village part of the Tower District. And lastly, I just want to give a shout out to Laura Garcia from PG&E. Um I had a light that went out in a port a part of my district and she was able to very quickly work with the right people to get that light turned back on. And so the residents of District 1 and this specific neighborhood just want to uh thank her and I want to thank her as well for helping us to get the lights turned back on. That concludes my remarks. Council President. All right. Thank you, uh, Council Member Carbassi.

Thank you so much, Council President. It's been a busy couple of weeks. Uh, first of all, as the, um, clerk announced earlier, we are adjourning in memory of two very special people. Ronnie Young. I know that was important for myself and the mayor and uh Council Member Maxwell to honor Ronnie as well as the members of the council. But Vernon Schmidt is another individual. You may not know him, but if you know our veterans community, you'll know Mr. Schmidt. He died at 100 years old. He's a World War II veteran. Um I got to meet him back when I had a restaurant and he would come in uh after going to church and he was a wonderful man. Uh he talked about his experience with his brother being a prisoner of war and um he would try to we had one night where we closed the restaurant down and had a bunch of kids come in, high school kids and middle school kids and it was packed and he told them the story of his experiences and I'll never forget that experience with him. He was a very good man and uh served our country and I uh wish his family uh all our prayers at this time. Um, one great piece of news for the west side of the district is we we we uh unveiled the first Hawk signal. Now, we have a couple of those in the city of Fresno. The Hawk signal is when you can push this button. It's a it's a crosswalk you just can't miss. You You're going to see it. It's like a traffic signal, but instead of having the red, white, and sorry, the uh red um green, and yellow lights, it's got flashing red lights and yellow lights. So, you notice Sorry, Scott. It's red or yellow. Hawk signal. Yellow lights. I'm sorry I got it wrong. Uh so you'll you'll notice the signal. Um and that was done in partnership with the county and supervisor Brian Pacheco right at Hernand Barstow Elementary. Now this was the first Hawk signal in the entire county and it was on the west side. So I really want to commend Supervisor Poacheo for really leading the charge of the county to make sure we got this done. And the of course our staff working so well. Thank you, Scott, for working with Steve White uh making this a possibility when we work together because it's because literally that street on Grantland, one side is city and one side is county. So, instead of

squabbbling and fighting, we just got together and we made it happen. So, thank you to Supervisor Pacheo for making that possible. Um I do also want to mention uh we had a neighborhood meeting for folks in the Fig Garden Loop Park. Uh there was some concern about um code issues and some potential crime issues. And if any residents ever experience anything and you're worried, we can have this was a virtual meeting. It was a quick meeting that was set up. We can all we're here to serve you. We can always set up meetings to talk about issues that are impacting your neighborhood. That's what we're here to do. It doesn't have to be a huge big meeting. It could be a small meeting, too. In fact, sometimes those are better because people are more comfortable to share. um also uh joined the mayor uh and we presented a uh check to the resiliency center for $50,000 to help them. The resiliency center is a program that um was funded by sorry started by Rod Lowry who was a former chaplain and what they do is they help families and children that face trauma. We of course saw earlier today um folks talking about victims of crime, but what happens after the crime is committed? what happens to those children that face that trauma and how can we get those kids and the families that are also going through a lot of trouble the services they need to deal with it psychologically and beyond that. So part of their goal is to build resilience in this community by actually dealing with the underlying problems and not letting it fester and fester until those kids unfortunately may go down the the wrong path because they were hurt when they were younger. It's kind of the purpose of that. So, I'm happy to join the mayor and appreciate the council for for allocating that funding. And then tree planting, uh, Arbor Day, great job. We, uh, I was with the mayor, of course, uh, two days ago and we planted a few trees and it was a lot of fun and he really he got down there even in his suit and did a pretty darn good job and clearly he's done it before. So, I appreciate the mayor for, um, showing me how how it gets done.

And then lastly, uh, there was the crime victim's honor walk last night. a lot of the good people that were here. I really want to thank the leadership of Council Member Maxwell for making this an issue and making sure because usually when we talk about public safety or the politics of public safety in our country, we very rarely talk about victims and that's really unfortunate. And the folks that were there last night, they were from all different races, all different income levels, all different backgrounds. But what what they had in common was they've lost a loved one or they were themselves a victim of a very violent crime. And so it's really important when we have these conversations of where we we invest our dollars, we also remember that there are people out there that are prayed upon and we should talk about them and they should have a voice even if they're not here anymore because they've been killed. Their family and us as policy makers have a responsibility to prevent that same thing from happening to anybody else. So that's what's happening. I appreciate uh everyone paying attention if you're still awake. And back to you, Council President.

All right. Thank you, Council Member Carbassi. Council member Arus. Thank you, Council President. Uh before I start, I want to say hello to the folks from Big Picture High School. I think you're all seniors. I hope you're enjoying this part of the council meeting. Uh just a reminder, this is your building. It's the house of the public, and this is where we do all the business of the city. So, I'm glad you guys made some time to show up and I hope you enjoy the tour later. And I think the mayor promised to buy you guys pizza. So, just, you know, remember, thank you, mayor, for the pizza. The kids appreciate it. Uh, just a couple of uh things I want to um point out. One is this upcoming Saturday, we have the Tower PorchFest, which I know city staff and the organizers have been spending quite a bit of time trying to get organized for it. Um, we expect some light showers in the morning or maybe late empty afternoon, but we do anticipate thousands of residents from Fresno and around Fresno to show up to um enjoy the more than 120 live um artists and bands that will be playing in people's front porches. So, I appreciate the work from the administration, the police department, and the organizers on getting ready for this year's um Tower Porch Fest. And then also just a quick message to the administration. Um, I I know we just closed down Fresno Street. Um, and I know that downtown has been uh for the last several years a huge hub for construction. Um, it's been several years in the making. Um, you know, one of the challenges of of this role is that residents complain to us about broken infrastructure and why it's not being fixed and then we finally start fixing it and then they complain about the detours and the time it takes to fix the project and the inconveniences uh of delays and things of that nature. I I can appreciate that downtown has been in construction mode for the last several years, but we do have some significant

winds. The underpass on Ventura Boulevard is open. The underpass on Taller is open. There'll be a third underpass on Fresno Street that will improve traffic for everyone coming to downtown Fresno and improve air quality. It does require us to be patient and to have inconveniences and I do recognize the impact on small businesses. Um but this is unfortunately the necessary work for us to continue to make improvements in our city. uh downtown specifically will be undertaking a lot of um water and and sewer upgrades, uh concrete repairs, street repairs. Um so I appreciate everyone's patience and I do ask the public in the nicest way possible, please slow down. These are our neighbors who are doing these jobs. Um they're at times hazardous jobs because people don't slow down when they see construction workers on the side. So, I ask you all to slow down and to drive these construction zones as as if you were driving by your neighbors and friends and family members cuz um they are that in our community. Um and lastly, um thank um the whole city for the work during this last storm. Um, any big city gets challenged when there's a big rainfall that nobody expected and a short period of time and the volume um that we didn't expect. But as usual, our city crews responded. Um, very few flooded streets and those that did get flooded got cleared up pretty quickly. So, I appreciate all the city workers for working the extra time to get that cleared up so that residents didn't um see the inconvenience um go through several days. So, that's all. Council President, appreciate the time. All right, great. Oh, last thing, council president. I remind everyone today is the state of the downtown and the mayor has promised a very short speech. So, I invite all of you to attend and enjoy some dinner.

All right, great. Uh, I don't have any comments from vice presidents. Uh, council member Vang, any comments today? Thank you very much, Council President. Uh, now Senator Sparza, it looks like the mayor is providing lunch and dinner.

Oh, okay. Or the city for that matter. Thank you very much, mayor. Uh, just a few comments from District 5. I had an opportunity to uh tour the um Fresno Police Dispatch Center. It is about time that our operators will be getting a new 911 call center, and I look forward to touring that new facility as well. uh about uh public safety. I uh have the honor of dropping girl scout cookies at fire station 8 and fire station 15 a few days ago during the rain, but it was worthwhile. Thank you very much to the uh Girl Scout cookies for providing the cookies as well. And um I participated in the annual Sanger West senior editic interviews. I do this on an annual basis. It's a great conversation between the seniors and the staff and members of the community. Each senior is required to do a uh research on their senior exit interview. And so I look forward to uh these young uh seniors and how would they uh contribute to members of our society. And uh I had two opportunities to attend the Kamai or Cambodian New Year celebration this past uh weekend at two different uh temples or Watt and the food was fantastic. And um if you want to go uh just for the food, it's worthwhile. But uh the festivity was also awesome. And um lastly, I will have my final town hall uh to be held at Kawwa Elementary this coming Tuesday, April the 28th at 5:30 p.m. Again, Kawwa Elementary, April the 28th, this uh coming Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. And I hope to see many of you there uh this coming Tuesday. That's all I have, Council President. Thank you.

All right, Council Member Richardson. Yeah. Uh joining remotely. So, thank you for allowing me to do that. And thank you to everybody who helped pass uh SB77 last year. Um our friends in the legislature made it possible to where anybody in the National Guard or Reserve while they're off doing what they're doing as I am right now. Uh they can still take part in uh the civic process. So, appreciate that. Uh thanks my staff for all the hard work while I'm gone. And that'll conclude my comments for today. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Council Member Richardson. We appreciate your uh your service. Uh that brings us to myself. Um you know, I wanted to say another congratulations to Fresno City College on receiving uh its official uh black serving institution designation. Uh it's a major milestone for the campus and a reflection of uh FCC's continued commitment to creating opportunity uh expanding access and supporting uh black student achievement. I was proud to join the faculty and students uh a couple days ago for their celebration to recognize this very uh important uh accomplishment. Um and special to be there as the member who represents the campus here at city hall, but also a privilege to to work there and be a small uh tiny part of of serving our students. Um, also a very big thank you to everybody uh citywide who came out this weekend to help with the greatest American cleanup. Uh, our team had a great time working uh in the Hadalgo area. Uh, always uh very inspiring to see volunteers uh come out uh whenever we have a beautify Fresno event and step up to take uh pride in in their neighborhoods and and neighborhoods really all around the city. Um because there are so many volunteers that that venture outside their own neighborhoods to go help clean others. Um so events like this make a a real difference and want to thank all the volunteers, organizers and partners and the

residents who helped to make it uh to make it possible. Uh we want to wish the mayor uh good luck at the uh state of downtown tonight. Um I'm sure it will be a short speech, you know, but short is in the eye of the beholder, you know. So um and uh yeah, that'll conclude my remarks. Keep it nice and short for for now. Uh I will pass it over to the city manager andor mayor if uh you have any additional comments. Sure.

Thank you uh council president. I do appreciate that uh and appreciate all of you participating in the beautify Fresno this last Saturday. The greatest American cleanup. For those who don't know uh this volunteer movement uh continues uh about 150 plus events per year. But this last Saturday, uh, 25 locations were selected throughout the city of Fresno. Uh, there were 1,820 volunteers that came out to help clean up the streets and alleyways, uh, plant trees, and in total there was 19,110 lbs of trash that was removed from our city. Uh and furthering the thought of Beautify Fresno, yesterday 200 students uh from Sunnyside High School came out uh to clean the neighborhood around uh the school. Uh so we are very appreciative of them and they're not done yet because tomorrow Sunnyside High School students are going to be over at Courthouse Park planting trees. Uh so Valerie, thank you for them uh getting all of our our students engaged in Beautify Fresno. And uh this Saturday, Fresno's leading young professionals uh will be removing graffiti along the area of uh Cedar and Dakota. And a special shout out, I know he's not in here, he was earlier, to Mark Stand, our uh person who oversees our Beautify Fresno efforts. He does an incredible uh job with limited staff. Then I've been uh to a number of ribbon cutings uh this last uh week um beginning with the grand opening of Los Amigos in our um airport terminal B and that has been long awaited for but we had a great uh grand opening there. also Burlington store uh located in River Park that is a store that generates a lot of revenue for our city and so we're we were thankful to be

able to welcome them and then Christian's Mattress opening up their second store in Fresno and that is at Blackstone and Hurnen uh and they have a number of them in the valley and throughout the central coast but to have two of them here in Fresno is a big plus and then as was mentioned Tonight I will be delivering the state of downtown and I will keep the speech short to about uh 15 minutes. Um and the reason is I want to um give time for an individual that's going to be on a panel and it is Richard Florida and he is the world's considered to be the world's leading urbanist and I look forward to uh to hearing Richard this this evening. So, with that, turn it back over to you, Council President.

Sure thing. Uh, Council Member Carbassi, you had uh you had missed something in your remarks.

Yeah, I'm sorry. It's been a long week. I totally forgot to mention yesterday um the governor was here in the valley and uh as you know, for years I served on the Sanwaqin River Conservancy board. Thanks to the mayor appointing me. I appreciate that. And he announced that he is starting the process before he leaves office to declare three new state parks. And one of them will be right here on the border of Fresno and Madera counties for the Sanwankin River. Just imagine Millerton being extended to cover that area. And why that's so important is it'll do a lot more to ensure that we have park rangers protecting the area, covering it. There'll be some funding to for ongoing maintenance. That way we can have more accessible areas. I mean, it's it's unbelievable. I mean, for all of us living in the city, you've got the hustle and bustle of cars and stress and life. You can literally from this point right here drive 20 minutes away and you could be at the river. Imagine the kids that have to live in that urban environment and hear all these frustrating things. They can go and escape out there. That's one of our biggest goals is for our seniors and our kids to be able to get out and just relax, bring the blood pressure down and calm down. And so this has all been decades in the making. really appreciate the governor for once again focusing more on res more resources for the valley and um he was also joined by the first partner as well. So this is an important initiative for them before they leave office and uh thank you so much. That's all.

All right, council vice president, you had some words.

Yeah, thank you for coming back to me, council president. I wanted to just give a few brief updates on some of the things that I've been involved with the last couple of days. Uh, I want to thank the principal and everybody at Washawn Elementary School in District 4. We had one of our council member book clubs there this past uh Tuesday. Um, this is a new initiative we started. Uh, many folks showed up to our December book drive. We raised uh about 1,500 books that we are now turning around and giving to first graders across District 4. If any of you know what the Scholastic Book Fair is, it's very similar to that except everything is free. We were able to see about a hundred kids that day and they were all able to take home um three new books to keep uh pencils, crowns, markers, a lot of school supplies um for them to take home and to be proud of and to keep. So, thank you for everybody at Wan Elementary for making that possible. I want to thank the principal at Norseman Elementary who we also had the pleasure of working with this week when we held a community meeting in that neighborhood and talked to parents and uh families around the neighborhood about green space and the lack thereof in that neighborhood and some of the things we're trying to do to alleviate that issue in their backyard. I want to thank uh Stephanie Busuian and everybody at Garden of the Sun, one of the amazing nonprofits we have in District 4. It's located off of Winery and McKinley Avenue. This is a collection of master gardeners who meet up on a daily basis and grow really beautiful things. It's open to the public every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They do classes and tutorials and they sell uh propagated plants. And so, Stephanie, thank you for being our contact to that nonprofit. And thank you to everybody at Garden of the Sun for meeting with us yesterday on Earth Day and helping us plant some Fresno chili peppers to take home. And lastly, I want to give an

update. Our annual Springfest is this Saturday from 11 to 2:30 p.m. Um, it is at Einstein Park. This is one of our largest annual events that we do. So, I want to give kudos to all of my amazing staff for putting this event together. Uh we're going to have over 50 vendors that are coming from different clubs and camps, afterchool programs across Fresno. The idea is if you bring your child, you will walk out with a program uh after school activity or a club for them to sign up for during the summertime that's either free or low cost. We'll have face painting, we'll have games, we'll have uh raffle prizes, and we'll also have uh Fresno Street Eats there with us, too. It is completely free. Again, it's at Einstein Park this upcoming Saturday, 11 to 2:30. It's looking like the weather's going to be decent. No rain. So, please bring your kids by and I guarantee you, you will find some activity, club, or organization that they fall in love with before you leave. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, council vice president. I don't think I missed anybody. I think we got everyone. All right. Great. All right. We have uh let's see, one, two, three, four, five different hearings. Uh most of my cards are for the Caesar Chavez Boulevard hearing. So, let's knock out these other four very quickly if we can, council. Um and we'll get to the uh the one that most folks are are here for. We'll take on the 9:10 a.m. item. This is in my district. Uh CFD number 11. Um I don't need a presentation but uh I will go out to public comment um at this time. So this is for a hearing to adopt uh uh CFD number 11 at North Armstrong Avenue and East McKinley Avenue uh open open public comment on this item, the 9:10 a.m. item. Seeing no one in the chambers, is there anyone on Zoom who would like to participate um and comment on the 9:10 a.m. item? Go ahead and raise your hand on Zoom.

I have no hands raised. Okay. Going to close the public hearing. Uh I'll make a motion to approve uh the 9:10 a.m. item. Have a motion and a second by Perea. Uh we do need to conduct a roll call vote. Um, clerk, please call the role. Thank you. Council member Perea, yes. Council member Carbassi, yes. Council member Aras, Vice President Maxwell. Council member Vang, I. Council member Richardson, yes. Council President Esparza, I. 70. The motion passes.

All right. Fantastic. We're moving on to the 9:15 a.m. item. This is in district 5. Also another CFD number 11. Uh, Council Member Vang, do you need a uh presentation? Uh, no, I do not. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and open up the public hearing for now the 9:15 a.m. item regarding the CFD number 11 at South Armstrong Avenue and East California Avenue. Is there anyone who would like to public comment here in the chamber or on Zoom? There are no hands raised on Zoom. Going once, going twice. We're going to close the public hearing for the 9:15 a.m. item on the CFT number 11. Uh bring it back to the council. Is there a motion?

A motion. I have a motion by council member Vang, second by council member Arius. Uh

yeah, clerk, please call the role. Council member Pereah, yes. Council member Carbassi, yes. Council member Arius. Vice President Maxwell. Hi. Council member Vang. I. Council member Richardson. Yes. President Esparza. I. Seven to zero. The motion passes. Okay. Move on to the 9:25 a.m. item. This is a hearing for CFD number 18 out at South Armstrong Avenue in East California Avenue. Same area. Uh vote for a CFT18 located in district 5. Council member Vang, do you need a presentation? Uh, no, I do not.

All right. Going to go out to public comment on the 9:25 a.m. item regarding CFT number 18. Anybody in the public who'd like to comment on the 9:25 a.m. item, either on Zoom or in the chamber. There is nobody on Zoom. Okay. Going to go ahead and close the public hearing uh for the 9:25 a.m. item. Bring it up to the dis motion. Motion. Have a motion by council member Vang. Second by council member Carbassi. Uh clerk, please call the role. Council member Perea, yes. Council member Carbassi, yes. Council member Aras. Vice President Maxwell. Hi. Council member Vang.

I. Council member Richardson. Yes. President Esparza. 70. The motion passes. Thank you, clerk. And lastly, uh, we have a 9:30 a.m. uh, hearing on CTF number 18. Uh, back at the original, uh, uh, sided discussion, North Armstrong Avenue and East McKinley Avenue. This is my district. Uh, no presentation from staff, please. But I will open up the public hearing, uh, to see if there's anyone from the public who would like to comment on the 9:30 a.m. item regarding CFD number 18 out at Armstrong and McKinley. And

there there are no hands raised on Zoom. No hands on Zoom. No one in the public here in person. Okay, we're going to go ahead and close the public hearing uh for the 9:30 a.m. item. Uh I'll make a motion to approve. Second by council member Arius. Clerk, please call the role. Council member Perea, yes. Council member Carbassi, yes. Council member Arius. Vice President Maxwell. Council member Vang, I. Council member Richardson, yes. Was that a yes? Yes. Thank you, President Esparza. I 70. The motion passes.

Okay, great. That was very efficient. Four items down. Now, let's move over to the 9:20 a.m. hearing. Uh, the one I think most people in the chamber are here uh for today. Um, so the 9:20 a.m. uh item is a hearing to consider the street name change uh application number P2600936 uh regarding changing the name of Caesar Chavez Boulevard to the uh reverting to the original street names of California Avenue, Ventura Street and Kings Canyon Road. Staff, very brief, please.

Thank you. Uh good morning, Council President. Uh council members Israel Turo Planning and Development Department. So, I'll make it brief. Uh, just quickly, the application is a request to revert uh Caesar Chavez Boulevard uh back to the original street names as shown up above, including uh starting at Marks in Southwest Fresno uh back to California Avenue uh all the way to Tutman Street. from Tutman. As you enter to downtown street, the Caesar Travis is proposed to revert to Ventura Street. As you get out of downtown, you'll add the compass direction East Ventura Street and then from uh from Cedar to Peach Avenue. The uh proposals uh revert back to King's Canyon Road. This application is submitted pursuant to a C council resolution that was adopted last month directing staff to uh revert back to the original street names. Uh if adopted uh the the planning department will notify various departments and agencies including the postal service uh PG& uh elections sheriff's department and so on and so forth. Uh the uh tenants and property owners will be required to update their personal records including driver's license, uh banking records, credit cards, etc. The public notice uh on this application was uh in the Fresno B. Uh uh projects that require or that have a notice of more than thousand notices, the development code does allow notice in the Fresno B. So the planning commission hearing as well as the city council hearing was published in the Fresno B. Uh in conclusion, uh there are two environmental assessments that were attached to the staff report. Uh there's the P26-00936.1. That's the one that staff is recommending that the council adopt. They're both legally defensible, but

that one is more specific to existing facilities and changing out signs. So, that's attached as exhibit I. That's the environmental assessment that staff is recommending for adoption. And also staff is recommending that the the city council approve the application. That concludes my presentation. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Israel. Um All right. uh going to take it out to the public before we come up to the dis. I do have a number of different cards. A lot of interest on this item. We're going to do a two-minute public comment on on this particular uh item. Uh so I have a stack of yellow cards. Fill one out. I have it. I'm going to call them in the order that I I received them from the clerk. Um if you have not filled out a yellow card yet, please uh please do. Uh we'll also be taking public comments on Zoom again regarding the uh reverting of the street name changes to the original California Ventura and King's Canyon. Uh so at this time the first card I was provided is Hester Hensley. Hester, come on down. You have uh two minutes, please. And I see your sign. We we uh you can show us the sign, but we're not going to block anybody behind you, please, from from viewing us. You can hold it but not raise it. Thank you.

Good morning, council, and thank you and thank you for your presentation. I just like to say that how soon will these changes take place? Do anyone know? Because some of the people in southwest Fresno think it's been a done deal when you first announced it that you were going to change it. But I noticed that Fresno State didn't take long to change that statue out there. Three days and it was gone. They didn't take long to change the birth date to farm farm workers day. So how long is it going to take to change those street signs? Cuz we don't want to think it's a done deal and you still haven't changed them.

Amen. So, Miss Ben saying that, do anyone know when these changes are going to take place? We need to know after public comment, we can have SAP address a question.

Okay. Also, no offense to anyone, it's time out to keep saying one Fresno when we know that Southwest Fresno has been left out, Charlie, on a lot of stuff. The trees that you planted on that walk trail, the bike trail, the weeds are taller than the trees. And that's no joke. You need to go see for yourself. I ask you to go see. It's not one Fresno. Our mayor, Ellen Audrey, said two tales of two cities. Southwest Fresno need to be included in that one Fresno. Thank you. Thank you, Esther.

All right, next card I have looks like Brunette. Come on down, Brunette. You have two minutes. My name is brunette and I'm with the heat for southwest Fresno community and I agree with Hester everything that she said and uh it should have been changed long time ago. It never should have been that anyway because the community didn't ask for it and there's a lot of things we don't ask for that we're getting and that's bust in the head with everything that you guys are doing. And as she say, uh, one Fresno is not one is one with whoever you guys wanted to be one with. And we don't have a say in anything. So, we want this gone as soon as possible. And I know it don't take that long. You guys can get out there today and do it. Just like the mayor said, he got out with those sticks picking up pieces of paper. Get these people together and get it changed today. All right. Thank you. Our next uh card is going to be for Manuel Silva.

And after Manuel, it's going to be Esco. I was under the understanding that we're going to have three minutes. So, I'm going to have to cut everything down to what said two minutes. Not everything, just one third.

Okay. My name is Manuel Silva, a Fresno resident. I'm here to present my case. My argument that the name Cizo Chavez Boulevard should be replaced with the name Dolores Werta Boulevard in honor and recognition of a person who has dedicated and devoted her life over 60 years to fighting for farm worker rights and justice farmworker rights and justice. In 1993, an attempt an attempt was made a measure passed uh saying they were going to name a street after Caesar Chaveis. He went to the mayor Jim Patterson at the time. he vetoed the bill. The the puppets in the city council uh they made the attempt but they failed to overwrite the vid uh the v the veto and we had to wait another 30 years until 19 uh 2023 when uh led by a new uh Latino majority in the council. Uh the council voted 6 to1 to rename portions of King's Canyon Venturas California Boulevard to Cesar Chavis Boulevard. the major pass. Thanks to Miguel Arias, thanks to Luis Chavez, thanks to Nelson Despars, thanks to an Analisa Perea, Max, Councilman Maxwell, and Councilman Kardashia. All of you voted that day. That day, all you you showed leadership and courage. You stood up to the races, letting them know in so many words, I'm not your puppet. On that day, you chose to stand with Caesar Chavez. You chose to stand with the farm workers. You chose to stand with the Latino community. You can do it again. Show your leadership and courage. All you have to do is to vote to remove the street sign Dolores Ceso Chavez Boulevard and replace it with Dolores Werta Boulevard. Um, in the near future, you're going to be running for office. Okay? Let's say the state assembly. Let's say the board of supervisors, Kadashi over here, or you'll be running for Congress later on or even for mayor. You're going to be running for future office. Everyone here is going to be

turned out. When you do, you're gonna be able to tell the general public. Thank Thank you, Emanuel. Thank you. We're going to move on to the next uh person. It's going to be Esco. Thank you.

No, it does not work that way. But we're not yielding our time this morning. You you may come speak, but Hester is being given our time already. You're not uh we're not yielding time this morning. Uh he he may come and speak, Mr. Isam. Uh but we're not giving people double time on this on this item. Yeah. All right. So, you've declined to come speak. Next card is going to be Clarence Tilman. Clarence. Clarence with us. Come on down, Clarence.

All right, come on down. Welcome. You have two minutes.

34 years. They never asked no question about changing the California back to Ca. We want to know when you going to do it. We moving quick California part of California in Fresno California.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, next card I have is for Elita Lang. And after Altha, I have Valerie Davis, trustee where there you are. You're next.

Hello. Um, I really appreciate the opportunity to speak and I totally support this uh motion and um I stood here uh in 2023 and 2024 uh supporting the keeping of the names of California, Ventura, and King's Canyon Road. So, thank you for bringing it back to the council. And if possible, I'd like to resubmit for the record my comments for um the last couple of times that I spoke. Is that possible? We'll accept any uh attachment you have. Sure. Yeah. Hands to the clerk. Yeah. I just I I printed them out from my last time and I just want to

Sure. Wrap it wrap it because it's all in support of keeping it the names. Yeah. We'll we'll keep this. I'll make some copies unless the other copies. Okay. Yeah. So, thank you again. I really appreciate it and I hope you all vote yes and and uh as the community really feels so passionately about to put it back to the original historic names. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Trusty Valerie Davis followed by Jackie Graasier.

Thank you so much. Um, I appreciate Hess for giving us that history lesson, but in 1993 I was here, uh, newly married. Well, I was married 10 years before that, but um living in the Sunnyside community now California Ventura and King's Kenyon have a special meaning to me because my parents grew up on the west side, attended Edison High School and I'm tardy now for a elementary school which is celebrating a hundred years old Heaton Elementary across street from um that city college. So, um, I appreciate the sentiments of trying to honor someone, but let's honor someone on a new development, a new street. It used to be that if you bought a street or you developed something, you had the naming rights. Property that was owned and sold, you had those naming rights. So maybe we should consider not taking away and renaming this and renaming that, but possibly seeking another avenue. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. All right, Jackie. And next person after Jackie is going to be Nick Kazarian.

Good morning. I'm Jackie Graasier and I have been here before to speak in favor of reverting the names back to Kings Canyon, Ventura and California Avenue. Um, this has been a long process for us. We have been fighting this name change since the beginning and all I can say is there's never a wrong time to do the right thing and I think you are doing the right thing in putting these street names back to where they were because they have a lot of meaning to the people that have lived here for a long time. The King's Canyon takes you to the Canyon of the Kings. That's something I said last time I was here. I don't know if any of all of you have been there. It's a majestic place and we want to keep that name. Ventura is very close to the Armenian community of which I am part of. And California Avenue is very important to the African-American community here in the city. And I do have to say there is in all of this process there is one silver lining that I can mention uh in that the group of us that met that day when the names were changed we formed a community group and we call ourselves one community compact and we've met several times and we've broken bread together and we've prayed together and I met people in this community that I would never would have met had I not been through this process and I just encourage you to revert the names back. Um I have nothing against honoring our farmworker community. I am a farmer myself and I grew up in a ranch in Sanger, California. And I am very supportive of our farm workers who help feed our world, which is very important.

And I feel like we should have a big group of people to honor that community, but not by changing these street names. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up is going to be Nick, followed by Sarah Pilibos.

Thank you. I rise to uh encourage the council to return the names of the three streets to King's Canyon, Ventura, and California. These names have history, they have legacy, and they have meaning. Most uh especially King's Canyon leads to our national treasure of King's Canyon National Park. Why wouldn't our great city be proud to be known as the gateway to King's Canyon National Park? It's a great honor. Also, with all due respect, the previous action of the council really was quite divisive. I really applaud the council for recognizing there is a remedy to this. by changing the names or returning the names to King's Canyon, Ventura, and California, we can all move forward together. Thank you for your time and your consideration.

Thank you, Nick. Next going is going to be Sarah Pilibos, uh, followed by Fanny. Miss Fanny,

good morning and thank you again for your time. I'm Sarah Pilibos. Uh we are our company and our family are property owners in southeast Fresno directly affected by the name changes that occurred in 2023. At that time the procedure that is occurring today did not occur. At the time it became known to us as property owners and business owners and residents. uh our property initiated a petition and I have the originals here. We never had the opportunity to present them against the name changes presented at the time. I would like to submit them. We have resident pardon we have residents. We have business owners. We have employees. We have tenants. All of these people signed, put their names, addresses, contact information voluntarily, and I want to present what we collected at that time in favor of today. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll accept those. Thank you. All right. Next, we have Miss Fanny, uh, followed by Pastor BT Lewis.

I'm not that tall. Hello, my name is Fanny. Miss Fanny Beard and I've lived on California for um I was raised on California and I would appreciate it if y'all would put um our name back to its original because that's as my mother would say, you need to let sleeping dogs lie and you need to put it back because I've had people to come to town and they didn't know where that they were supposed to uh turn. They didn't know. They didn't know about Caesar Chavez. And then I have one friend I sent a card to. She said, "I know the address, but I don't know the name." So, it would be really nice if y'all could consider our names to be put back to its original state. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Uh, Pastor BT Lewis, you're next. Pastor, you with us? the outside. Hope he comes back in. But uh we'll move on to Diane Glenn. I love Diane Glenn. Um not only take the signs off the streets, I feel his face be taken off the school Edison High School because he didn't contribute anything to the high schools. um he was only a farm worker. Um the athletes that contributed to the high schools, their faces should be put on those schools because they still contributed to the high schools. They go and they um hold camps for the uh high schools for the kids. something should be uh put up there for the uh professional high uh athletes to go back to those schools and contribute to those high schools. And don't procrastinate. You guys are spinning your wheels, taking your time. Don't do that. We shouldn't come back here over and over again. I feel that's very disrespectful. We shouldn't have to come back here over and over again. Seems like we're begging. We shouldn't have to beg just because we're people of color.

Stop it. Take the street signs down. Have some respect. God don't like ugly. All right, thank you. Next speaker is going to be Karen Massan. I have good morning everyone. I'm I'm Karen Mousan or Karen Musen as some of us refer to myself and of course I've spoken on this many times because it's very uh it's deeply emotional I think as you can see from the other speakers it's personal um you know what I reflected on this morning was is how important each and every one of us consider our ancestry and history and parts and parcel of that is not just our names but it's also So our places and my father used to say that you know you grow where you're planted and I think that's fairly true. You know, those of us in the Armenian community grew to love in spite of redlinining to grow up in a part of Fresno that maybe wasn't as desirable but was close to our roots in the farming community. And Ventura Street has great meaning because of that, as does California Street and

King's Canyon. I just want to remind everyone that Ventura Street was named in memory of San Bueno Ventura, named by Father Hunipro Sera in 1873 in Fresno. The street received its name. California Street was selected as you know the name of our state and again it has a deep history and roots of that name and the founding of that name. And that street was actually named in Fresno in 1881. And then of course King's Canyon, another very special place not only to the early explorers, the Spanish explorers in Gabriel, but also to the people of Fresno County. It's magnificent, beautiful park that we all pride ourselves in naming as being the home to and the place of as people travel to see the beautiful Sequoas. I want to encourage each and every one of you to give us back our names and our ident.

Thank you. Dr. Venise Curry, next speaker. While she comes on up, I'll remind you if you'd like to speak, please submit a yellow card or raise your hand on Zoom. And um also one last call for Pastor BT Lewis if he's around. Welcome, Dr. Curry.

Thank you and good morning. Uh, I want to thank you first for bringing this item back to the public. Um, this in no way undermines or doesn't acknowledge the hard work and the sacrifice of farm workers, but I do support the returning of the street names to those that were there before. A good name is really a an invaluable asset. Uh, it sets a cultural tone. It really anchors people historically. And it really helps to shape communities, neighborhoods, and families. And I think when you what you hear is an emotional plea, but also a connection to the past, the present, and the future. And so returning these names, California Avenue, Ventura, and King's Canyon Road simply restores what people have talked about, which is the connection to their past. um an acknowledgement of what's happening now in the present, but also the idea of future and how these communities are shaped by the places that we have grown and rooted our our communities and our families. And so I would support the recommendation. I would support the idea that this is a respectful way to honor all communities and that we are not looking or seeking to undermine efforts uh and hard work by the farm workers community. But we also acknowledge that we also have history and in that history we'd like it to be respected as well. So thank you again.

Thank you. All right. Any last cards or speakers? Anyone on Zoom? There are no speakers on Zoom.

Okay. Oh, looks like we have one more taker. My name is Jose Luis Parazza. I'm the CEO of Southeast Fresno Community Economic Development Association. I'm not certain the direction that's being planned today is the actual right thing to do. What I do know is I am a farm worker and I have history working in the fields and I've been a longtime supporter of the United Farm Workers and Sister Chagas. I know the great works that went on because I was part of it. But I also was part what I've been part of is is Fresno. I was born I was raised here and in West Fresno. Even baptized in West Fresno. Spent 20 years in West Fresno trying to rebuild Fresno because I love this town. Chinatown was one that I worked on. When it came down to building what we call the empty the empty bag movement, I was there. And I want you to think about in the court of justice or in the court of public justice whether this is the right thing to do. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further speakers on the 9:20 a.m. hearing item regarding the name change? Welcome.

Okay. Um, where's my time? So, I could see it somewhere. Okay. So, um I wanted to say is that um what's really not being said or acknowledged um by the people here is that um when you guys did this, you guys didn't really get public input or they didn't get due process. The people who were affected by this or were going to be and even the people who did speak out, you guys didn't listen. And for what reason? I don't know. I don't even understand the reason why the name needed to be changed in the first place. There was nothing wrong with the name. I know I went to Fresno Adult School. I know Caesar Chavez. It's unless they changed it still the same. And so this just is a good example of what happens up here all the time is that you guys are going to do what you want regardless of what the public says. So how easy is it for you guys to go back and forth, right? King's Canyon, Fisa Chavez, and Right. It's not out of your pocket, is it? If it was, you wouldn't be doing that.

All right. Thank you. Any uh additional public comment on the 9:20 a.m. item either on Zoom or here in the chamber? I have Lisa Flores on Zoom.

All right. Welcome, Lisa. You have two minutes. First off, thank you for giving the community the opportunity to uh voice their opinion on Zoom. I wish you would open it up earlier than July first um to truly get communic uh community input. Um first off, I want you guys to think of it this way. The number one reason why you need to change the name and you need to do it as soon as possible without delay is would we be having this discussion if that street was called Jeffrey Epstein? We wouldn't. We know what Epstein did. We now know what Chavez did. And you need to do this for every woman in Fresno because if you put up a name of someone who's violated a woman like that, numerous because the ones that have come forward are not the only ones, then that speaks loudly of how Fresno one Fresno thinks about the women in town. And also too, you guys need to think and look at your behavior in passing this. You've had a great community out swell of voicing their opinions of a no name change and you chose to change the name which has now cost the city um hundreds of thousands of dollars. And you need to think about next time you decide to do a name change, it really does need to do a deep dive because if you really ask the community and you did a deep dive, you would have heard the rumors. Once again, I support the community's

desire to change the name back. Thank you. There are no more speakers on Zoom. Okay, seeing no more speakers here in the chamber, no more on Zoom, we're going to go ahead and close the public hearing on this uh particular item. Come back up to the uh dis and I have two punchups. Council member Oh, I have four. Council member Carbassi followed by Council Member Perea. Okay. If we could start as council member suggested, if we can first staff get an idea of can you explain the process to change a street name, maybe that would help and maybe the timeline. Mayor,

I'll just uh if I may just give somewhat of a lead and I I know there's a lot of emotions involved in this issue and understandably so, but I I do think it's important to know that we're not in in our administration procrastinating at all in terms of um what we're doing. Uh this is not when the signs and I'm guessing this council will support this today, but it is not a matter of labor or cost. It's a it's a legal process that has to be abided by by the city. Uh there has to be two hearings. This is the second hearing. Uh you have to notice the folks who live along um King's Canyon, California and um Ventura and there are in my estimation thousands of letters that have to go out. I understand those letters are going to be going out tomorrow. Uh but in terms of the details, timelines, etc., I think it would be best for Israel to talk about the remaining portion of that process.

Uh, Council Member Carbosi, I understand your question is what what is the process to change the name of the street? Yes, whether it's this street or any street in Fresno by changing the name. There's a legal process we're required to follow. Correct. Yes, that's correct. As the mayor mentioned, there are two uh uh hearings, public hearings that are required um including planning commission uh and city council. And part of those hearings give the public an opportunity to participate in the conversation if we're making a dramatic change like that. Correct. Yes. Okay.

Yes. So, in this instance, since the uh the the the street name change was was so long as 6.9 miles, rather than noticing within a th000 ft of that corridor, we noticed uh in the in the Fresno B. Uh so again, if there's if there's more than a thousand notices that the development code does allow that. Okay, fair enough. And then is there a rough timeline? Let's say we have this hearing today. How long can we expect there to be a change? We I think we have about 80% of the signs, but we have to order 20%. So, we actually have 100% of the signs, but only 80% of them are reusable. Okay.

Um, and I know Scott Moer mentioned with the letters going out tomorrow, the plan is for public works to be out there the following weekend, May 1st and 2nd, to start the sign installation. Um the freeway signs are going to take a little bit more time because that involves CALR, but the signs that we have control over will begin May 1st and 2nd.

Okay. Gotcha. Okay. That's my only question for staff. Um so I think like like the mayor mentioned, it's really important we make let folks know there is a legal process just like last time when it was changed. That's why we had multiple hearings. The room was packed full of people. That is the public process that's required. So it's not like we have the power just like that to change it. You saw how fast we moved bringing this item to the council at the first hearing and we are moving as fast as we legally can. But the problem is I want folks to know I know this is super emotionally charged on all sides. That has been very clear for the last few years. You're all very passionate. It's about your history. It's about culture. It's about heritage on all sides. I totally get that. But when you when folks come up here and they speak to us, we actually do listen to you and the media listens too. So when there's a comment made like it feels like we're begging just because we're people of color. This council, I can say for myself, take that to heart because that is not what's happening. We are legally bound to follow a process to protect the businesses out there, protect the public out there, to give you an opportunity to have a say. And you're here mostly in support of this. But to suggest that just because of a person's race, in this particular case, we're doing that. When the media picks up on that and they report that, what that does is damage the relationship between local government and its people. I am not suggesting for any any moment that there hasn't been a history of hurting folks based on their race. We had redlinining in this town. Whether you're Armenian, whether you're black, whether you're Latino, it's happened. But this council, I can tell you the the seven people on here, they wouldn't mind me speaking for them, are probably the most active council to support all of our communities across this town. So, like I said, we hear what you say, but let's please lower the temperature a

little bit because this is going to get done. We're following the legal process, and I think most of the folks in this room will be happy. Um, I'd also want to suggest something um or ask a question of staff. And I think the city manager can answer this one. So I was walking in West Fresno off of Dakota. I noticed a beautiful 5 acre park under construction. What is the name of that park? Dolores. I couldn't remember which location that was. Dolores Park.

Yep. So I just want to be very clear. any suggestion that we don't support our farm workers or the movement. This council devoted money, devoted resources, and the next new beautiful shiny park in West Fresno will be Dolores Huerta Park. So, I hope that puts that thought to rest because we want to be really clear. Many of us said up here that what she had to go through holding this secret for so many years because she didn't want her to hurt her movement that takes a lot of courage. It's not easy to live with that trauma. And so I hope we can all move on as a community, honor every culture, every heritage in harmony as best we can. We just got to lower that temperature in the room. So thank you all for listening and I'm done with my comments. Thank you. All right, Council Member Perea followed by Council Member Richardson. Thank you, Council President. Um, I just want to start by saying that I'm proud to sponsor this item to restore the original names. Um, it's always difficult when we're having to name new city facilities, whether it's a street or a park. Um, I named a new park in my district and we probably got a hundred different name suggestions and um, it council member Karbosi mentioned it, but the the newest park, the newest, shiniest park in our district, my my district.

Um, it's going to be over a $14 million investment. And it was led by at the time Councilwoman Sora. Um, and I supported that that that name is now going to be Dolores Verta Park. It's going to be the the I think one of the best parks in our entire city. And she deserves to have that park amongst other things named after her. Um, I stand with Dolores and every other person, female or male, who has been victimized. Um, I want to just note that the actions of Caesar Chavez has by no means is is not reflective of the farmworker movement as a whole. And so while I understand the the difficulty of the the naming process, the time it takes to get through it, um the difficulty of coming up with a name in the first place of what any city facility should be named after, um I do believe that given the information that we know today that this is the right thing to do. And so again, I am proud to sponsor this item and I will be supporting it today. Um, city manager, you had mentioned that the renaming of the streets will begin the first week of May. Should we expect it to be more or less completed within two weeks, two months?

Scott Moer, you want to come up and give the timeline. Good morning, director. Good morning, council. Scott Moer, uh, public works department. Uh so our strategy and our approach uh on that effort uh we do need to keep our uh sign crew uh on regular working hours focused on things very critical safety concerns like stop sign knockdowns. Uh they have to mobilize very quickly but we've um we've identified we believe that we'll be able to accomplish the whole corridor uh basically over three weekends. Three weekends. Yes. All right.

That's correct. So, uh, really we're looking out to just miday, uh, to be wrapped up. Okay. Thank you, director. Assuming assuming council approves the item today. Correct. Thank you. And then what would be the process to coordinate, I guess, with CALR to make sure that they are able to timely update their their names along the freeway.

Um, on the on the CALR front, uh, we it it's essentially the same process uh the city went through uh in 2023. So it will involve an agreement with CALR uh where statewide policy is that the local agency funds that cost of the conversion. Uh so that'll be an agreement that comes back before the council. Uh Calrans would then go forward to uh order order the signs. Uh those are very large signs uh almost as big as you know wallto-wall in this council chamber. uh those do take several months to uh procure and fabricate and then they'd be installed. Uh we are working with CALR as well on some short-term uh solutions where they may be able to uh uh cover that temporarily while the permanent signs are ordered.

Thank you, director. Thank you. I'm going to give it back to council vice president. Thank you, council member Perea for your remarks. We're going to go next to Zoom. Council member Richardson, I have the floor.

Thank you, Council Vice President. I'll uh I'll just take the wall. Um look, so I wasn't here on this council when this was originally voted upon. Um but my vote is going to be driven in large part by the same reasoning of my predecessor. So, uh, it was a 6-1 vote. My predecessor was the no. And I I don't think I mean, you can speculate it was because of one reason or because of another. Um, but the one thing that we definitely have in common is fiscal responsibility, being fiscally conservative. Um, and and a comment was me mentioned by the public about how the the thing that's not being talked about today is public com that that has been talked about. The thing that's not really being talked about today is the cost to all of the business owners to change everything that they have that had said their address for years. So on one hand, yeah, I think that the original name should absolutely be brought back. On the other hand, essentially doubling the cost to rename all the streets just to get back to the starting line seems like the least fiscally responsible lap back to the starting line that we could possibly have taken. Um, what I would like to know, uh, and this is probably a question for, uh, for staff, is the the cost to the city to originally change all these names. I know a lot of that had to do with reimbursements, and again, I wasn't on the council at the time, so hopefully you can educate me on this a little bit. Um, the cost to the city to move uh, all three streets to Caesar Chavez Boulevard. Can you remind us of what that cost was? Whether that was primar I'm sure it wasn't primarily street signs, right? it. I would imagine it was some sort of economy of scale being able to print them out in mass. Uh I'm sure a lot of it was reimbursement to businesses. If you can speak to those costs real quickly, and I can't see what's going on in there. I I don't have uh I don't have any imagery right now, so hopefully someone's getting ready to

to speak to this. Um and after you kind of explain that cost the first time, if you could speak real quick to what's the cost going to be this time? Yeah, I know we have the signs and that's fantastic. that should take a few thousand bucks off the top. But are we investing at all in reimbursement to the businesses? I understand the the cultural side and the historical side and the personal side and as as um Council Member Carbassi mentioned that the temperature is really high and a lot of people see this from a cultural standpoint or a personality standpoint. But down to brass tax, there are businesses who whether you like someone, hate them, or whatever else, if you're going to change their way of doing business or a significant portion of their advertising and billing and mailing and everything else. That's really the part that's not being talked about. So hopefully someone and staff can speak to that. If no one's up there, let me know. But I'd really like to hear that. Bernard, if we could work on the video, I would appreciate that. Maybe it's my phone. Go ahead, Scott. If that's okay with the council vice president,

council vice president. Okay, for Scott to go ahead and address those. Thanks.

All right. Thank you. Uh so, uh these these are a matter of uh public record. Uh two uh items did come before the council as part of that name change. Uh, one was, uh, the city bid out a contract, uh, to replace all of the street name signs along the three streets. Uh, that was approximately $130,000 uh, for the contractor. And then there was an agreement uh, with CALR that came before the council and uh, that was just under $100,000. So the uh vast majority of the expenses uh on on the uh street name change were the actual signage changes uh roughly 130,000 plus a small amount of soft costs uh for just the bidding and then the inspection of that work uh and then the CALR uh cost for sign panels and CALR crews.

Okay, that that's very helpful. Director Moer, was there no attempt to reimburse any of the businesses for their expenses to change their names? And yes or no? Is there any interest this time? And and Director Moer, this is not a question for you. It's just something uh for all of us who are making the decision to keep in mind. Is this something that we're going to look into reimbursing the businesses again to change them back? Um that's that's a significant part of this expense if we're going to. Uh but but I feel like if I vote yes on this, it's because I think the name change was something that I disagree with. And I think that was the majority of the public comment as well. But if I vote no, it's because I don't think it's fair to to double impose a fee on all of those businesses and homeowners that they didn't ask for. So, um not really full transparency, not really sure how I'm going to vote on this one, but those are my main concerns going into this. And if anybody can speak to that um the reimbursement and whether or not we plan to make this worth anybody's while, I would love to hear those comments.

Richard, Vice President, I may try to answer your question, but I want just clarification from staff. Um when we approved the name change, we also set aside funding for businesses to request reimbursement and support for the cost of business cards, letter head, X, Y, and Z. Um how many businesses uh drew down on that on that um offer for assistance?

Uh council uh letters were sent to every single business on the corridor. Uh they were uh offered a chance for reimbursement consistent with what the council established as I recall that I believe that was up to $200 per business uh for stationary letterhead. uh only one business uh actually uh submitted invoices and uh was able to be reimbursed. So, and as I recall that was $77.

Great. Thank you, director. And the reason I I asked a question is there's been a lot of discussion on how we got here and what the cost was. The council when we approved this considered all the competing um concerns that people expressed. One of them was the cost to businesses. I think Miss Muzan made an argument that it was going to cost people thousands of dollars. And what we found out was um very few to no businesses actually have the street name on their building. It's just a number. The numbers never changed. So there was no cost to physical uh facade of buildings. Um we also found that in the world of digital um the you simply notify the post service. the post service that notifies all the online platforms, Google Maps, Apple Maps, and then everything's kind of updated in a digital format with zero cost. So, although we set aside a million dollars for this transition, the cost never reached a million dollars. Um, as you noted from the city staff, only one business requests help on the reimbursement. Um, and the cost is really about signage and the staff work to actually put up the signage. Um so I I don't see this as a as a huge obstacle for us today. I I do want to point out that um you know when we the discussion to Cesar Travis Boulevard took 30 years. This council debated it for two years. Um, and at that time a group of folks representing agriculture, the pesticide industry, and a few others who had history with the UFW and farm workers sued the city, claiming that we didn't follow our process. We went to court and the court found that we did follow our process. As it's been noted, there's a process including public hearings. We went through that process a couple years ago and we were successful in court in confirming that the city followed this

process. today is the same thing. Um, council member Ryz, I I appreciate that. I I you answered my question very well. I'm going to take the rest of my time if you don't mind just to end. And by all means, go ahead. Might be next. Um, the the only thing I I hope that that was very informative and I think that'll that'll help inform my vote. I appreciate that context. Um, I just this doesn't require an answer to in the hope of a back of our minds, every experience you should learn something from if you want to get better. And whatever the lesson is, I just I hope that we learned our lesson as a city or as a council or whatever else that next time we're just a little more cautious and we don't get ourselves into this predicament again, whatever whatever that may look like. So, council vice president uh or council president, if you're back, that's uh that's all I had. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, council member. Next, I have council member Vang uh followed by was it the mayor? TJ, did you punch up? Who punched up over there? I think he already spoke. I think he was uh at the very beginning. uh spoke. All right. So, Council Member Vang followed by Council Member Carbassi.

Thank you very much, Council President Esparza. I was not here in 2023, but I'm here today and I heard you loud and clear. Uh those who spoke in person and the one individual who spoke uh through Zoom, also the uh half dozen or so people who submitted their opinion to my office. I heard each and every one of you loud and clear. As noted earlier by my colleagues, this is a very emotional subject. It is not only culturally uh significant uh also uh there's a financial component to that as well. And um I want to thank um Miguel, my uh colleague here, for mentioning the uh $1 million that was allocated in the uh resolution dated March 21st, 2023 uh to the renaming project to cover the application fee, labor, and materials and replacement of Zixon City Streets and signs. For many of you, this is personal because you have history attached to this corridor, starting with California in the west, Ventura in the mid, and King's Canyon to the east. If this name change is going to revert back to its original names, King's Canyon will impact my district greatly. And um at this time I do support the renaming of this corridor back to its original three names with California, Ventura, and King's Canyon. What I look forward to is after council approve, if we approve this agenda, what about the businesses that operate along this corridor? Again, we're asking them within three-year period to go through expenses that it's none of their fault

and understand the intention of the council at that time that we were not uh I guess it was not foreseeable to anybody at that time what we saw happened a month ago. But at the same time, we're asking the residents in Southwest and Southeast Fresno to change their addresses to California Avenue, Ventura, and Kings Canyon. At the same time, we're asking business operators, and many of them are mop and pop uh business operators in southeast and southwest Fresno who cannot afford to put in 200 or 2,000 or 20,000 expenses that the city has asked him to do three years ago. And now we're asking them again to cover that cost. And my colleague asked, is there a lesson to be learned? There's always a lesson to be learned as human beings when we make significant decisions that impact hundreds and even thousands of lives. And so moving forward, I hope um you know we can at the very least alleviate some of the financial burdens that will impact the businesses along the corridor of uh well soon will be I hope Kings Canyon, Ventura and um California Avenue. Uh, I'd like to ask of staff uh if we can um identify how many businesses along this I believe seven plus or less than seven miles that will be impacted by the name change. I know that uh perhaps we have the number in 2023 and if we can have a number for uh for current I really appreciate the number staff. Yes. Thank you, Council Member Vang. So,

uh, our system, uh, pulls out addresses and there's roughly 1,600 addresses that that will need to change. Uh, unfortunately, we don't have those, uh, separated between, you know, residential and commercial. So, we know that the number is 16 approximately 1,600 addresses uh, will need to change. I would like to add that I I know it's not a not a huge cost saver, but the post office does uh they link the addresses for a year. So if they continue to use, you know, Caesar Chavez Boulevard, they can use their existing letterhead uh existing um you know, mail um documents that they have, they can use those for a year as a post office. We'll we'll link those two addresses.

Okay. Planning manager, can you provide those uh 1,600 um businesses to council? Yes. Yes. So there there's 1,600 unique addresses. We don't we don't have them separated between like uh businesses and and and residential. They're just I see. So So they're either business or residential addresses impacted. Yes. Correct. So council member, we'll do that, but we're focused right now on getting those letters out. Once we're done with those tests, we'll get you that information. I don't want to delay um getting the letters out.

Right. I understand. And my my specific question is the the business component of these 1600 addresses that will be impacted. If we can uh separate the personal address from the business address then um not only that be identifying business address in uh district five, district three or district 7 so I can have an idea of how many businesses will be impacted in district 5 when and if council uh passes this item to revert back to King's Canyon, Ventura or California. Can we can we do that? So I know we can separate by council district. So, we can separate the addresses between what's a business and what's a residence.

We'll need to look into that. Um I if it's zone residential, then we'll assume it's, you know, a residential property. And then the ones that are commercial, we'll assume, you know, obviously they're commercial. So, as you know, on that corridor, which is p primarily commercial, there are some residents. So, the zoning may be like a mixeduse. So, I I'm going to tell you, it's not going to be perfect. I know on the um on the corridor itself it's going to be more difficult on the the streets offshoot. Those are primarily residential. I think that'll be um much easier, but it's not going to be 100% accurate. I'm asking staff to do their very best to separate personal from business. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's all I have. Council President, thank you.

All right, Council Member Carbassi, followed by Council Member Arus. Thank you. Uh just real quick, so there was some discussion about um businesses being impacted um having been born and raised in a small business. I get that. Now, we did offer businesses last time to be clear. Council Marius, you brought this point up. We offered businesses an opportunity to submit receipts and help them with their transition and we only got $77 worth of requests. Is that correct? Correct. It we paid out about $75. I'll let Scott answer the specific.

Uh yes, uh council member. Uh so, uh the city received four requests and the policy was that uh business would have to have invoices. Uh so out of the four requests we received, uh three of them were returned back just asking for uh invoices or proof of payment. Uh they could not provide any of that. Uh they claimed that they had that expense but had no proof of that. So city policy is of course we need to see some kind of invoice verified

only. Yeah. Yes. So only one actually produced that but uh there last cycle I I we'd have to look at how many letters went out but out of all the hundreds and hundreds of letters only four came in with that request. Okay. So right now how much funding is set aside for helping small businesses transition?

We don't have anything right now. Um, as we've talked about, the previous time there was money set aside by the council for moving the signs back. There was no funding set aside. So, we our focus has been getting the signs changed. I did not want to hold up the process um because we don't have funding for the businesses and we're going to deal with that on a case-by case basis. So, today we don't have any money set aside for the businesses. That's not to say that we're not interested in helping, but I didn't want to delay the sign project to um be able to uh figure out how we were going to pay for any potential business uh impact given the lack of um requests we had last time.

No, fair enough. And I appreciate you um the administration moving fast on this, but to be a good partner, uh what I'll do is I will pledge $10,000 from my reserves operating budget towards this effort to help the small businesses and hopefully they will utilize it. Um, and with that, I'd like to make a motion to approve. All right, we have a motion and a second. Uh, council member Arius, you were punched up next.

Thank you, Council President. Um, I I do want to point out to Council Member Carbassi, you're absolutely right and appreciate the help on the small business world. Um, as I was noting last time, there was significant public opposition and the record and the public opposition was around the financial impact to small businesses. I remember Miss Mousan making that argument that all her small businesses would take a financial hit for the ch name change occurring. But I do want to point out the irony that today not one person has called out the cost and opposed the name change because of impact to small businesses. And I think the reason is frankly um there wasn't a significant impact as you saw we made money available very few businesses requested the support and only one actually received the support based on receipts. So um I I I do believe that at that time and the public record is there for everybody to watch. There was significant arguments being made around um whether there was any real history of the UFW in Cesar Chavez in Fresno and the record was clear. The first UFW meeting occurred on California Avenue. Uh the first convention of the UFW occurred in the Fresno Convention Center. the there was a huge record of opposition by agriculture and farmers back then against the UFW and its advocacy for farm workers. Back then it was normal practice to spray pesticides on farm workers as they were working in the fields. That required litigation by the UFW and farm workers and so Chavez to stop. So um we dealt with a lot of unrelated matters um that were um we had to work through. Ultimately we made the

vote to change the name. Uh but the fact is when the facts change our minds have changed and that's what we're required to do as public stewards of these roles. Um when we made the change to Cesar Chavez the facts were very clear. He was a hero in the labor movement. He advocated for those who didn't have a voice. He took on the agriculture industry as they abused and took advantage of farm workers. Um, and since then the facts have changed and now we know what nobody else knew except a very handful of people that work closely with him. And so it's incumbent on us to change our minds when the facts have changed. But I do want to also be very clear that the same process that we're using today is what we use in 2023. And it is our responsibility as public servants to adhere to honoring a process that will withstand a legal challenge. And those who opposed it two years ago challenges in court and lost because we followed the process. today. Some of them are asking us to ignore the process and expedite it for their interest. And I'm glad that this council is united to say we're going to follow the same process that withtood a court challenge even though it may not be as fast as a handful of people may want, but it is the right thing to do because that's the obligation that we have as public servants and protectors of the taxpayer funds. um and I would be much more amunable as I was back then to say we should set aside um a lot more money for the financial impact. But what we know now is that the financial impact was minimal. There was a cost to signage. There was a cost to installing the signage, but there wasn't the bloated

cost that was suggested by a handful of people as cover for their public opposition. So, um, I'm happy to support this item as it is our responsibility to change our minds when the facts have changed. Thank you all. All right. Great. We have a motion on the table. Uh, clerk, you please call the role. Thank you. Council member Perea, yes. Council member Carbassi, yes. Council member Aras, Vice President Maxwell, hi. Council member Vang, I. Council member Richardson. Yes. I'm 10,000. Council President Esparza.

I The motion passes 70. All right. Thank you.

All right. Thank you everyone for coming out and providing your your input on today's item. We're going to move on to the consent calendar at this time. Uh, and so what I'm going to do is open up uh public comments with respect to the consent calendar, any items that may have been pulled from the consent calendar uh to be heard separately as well as close session. So I do have a couple of cards here. Uh, the first one I have is Ashley Owens. Welcome. You'll have uh three minutes there.

All right. Um my name is Ashley Owens. I work for Dawson Melon Construction. Um we were the apparent low bidder for the Leaky Acres project. Um we have received a letter from the city uh bypassing us and deciding to go with another contractor. Um at that time we went ahead and we filed an appeal. We did the you know the due our due process um which was again which was later denied. Um, we requested the bid documents on the on March 30th and as of March 14th or April 14th, I got a response that I could come in to see look at the documents, but they wouldn't supply them um any other way. I I I brought up the CP the act asking them to go to provide them to me since they were um submitted via electronic submission. So essentially they should be stored that way. Um still being kind of pushed around told you know you can come in when at a mutual agreeable time here in the future and we can discuss or so you can look at them. Um as of right now we are not necessarily trying to argue the merits of the of the bid of the of their judgment or their decision. What we're trying to do is ask city council to not award the project because we are still in um discussions with the city of Fresno and we haven't had some the answers uh that we asked uh answered. Um let's see. So, sorry. What we're worried about is that the that the city the city of Freso is going to award a job to another contractor without giving us our due process without um allowing us to explain ourselves. Um we did ask for a hearing, we were denied that right. Um even though we provided all documentation, we provided it timely. We

uh provided copies of everything and the city has has decided that that it wasn't enough. um it it was the merits that we provided weren't something that we could discuss with and she wasn't going to let us have that hearing. I'm kind of confused because resolution uh 2003139 says that that is exactly what I can argue as long as I provide th those um that backup. So uh again, I just would like the city c or the council to consider not awarding that project at this time. so that the city of Fresno and Dawson Molden can close out what our appeal process is and actually get an answer to our the questions that we provided. And that's all. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Uh the next speaker I have is Tammy Slaughter. Tammy, are you with us? Uh did you were you wanting to comment on one of the consent items? I'm sorry. Uh what item were you here to discuss today? Uh this is just off the agenda item. We um we are not yet on unscheduled. Let me see if I can get through this and if there's a few minutes before lunch, I got your card. Okay. Yeah. All right. Any further public comment on the consent agenda? Contested consent uh or close session. There is no one on Zoom.

No one on Zoom. Okay. At this point, I'll go ahead and close the public comment on the consent agenda. Contested consent and close session. Uh, is there a motion or any other uh action for consent agenda? Council President, I do have some concerns about the item that was just raised during public comment. I'd like to have um staff answer some questions about timing and why it is that we can't delay approval.

Yeah, I mean, we did put out a trade memo to council um on this exact item on April 14th. Um staff's here to answer any questions. Um we can have further conversations. We've been um every step of the way following our process, consulting with legal counsel to make sure that we are on solid footing. It's just unfortunately um the uh the other you contractors is ultimately we're not um the winning contractor. So I I I don't know what to say. I mean I think we need to move ahead with this project because it's a really important project and we have to do it in in time with when we're not going to be um it's a it's a short season. We have to coordinate with FID, with FI, with FMSED, with how our water deliveries are because as you know that leaky acres is like our biggest recharge uh pond in the city of Fresno. So, in order to take that offline and not be using it, it has to be very delicately timed. So, um I don't think it's a good idea to delay, which was why we were trying to get ahead of this and provide council with information. Um, but ultimately, uh, we're not going to I don't think we're going to be able to miss we're going to miss a contract date or anything like that. I think it's just more of timing of the work. I'm looking at my staff to see if I'm anything else I'm missing.

Council member, are you wanting to pull it for contested? I I am or I can just they can answer your question now. However you prefer, chair, um, staff's here. We We're here. All right. Come on down. And my I don't want to get into the um the substance of the of your decision making because I think there's a process for you all doing that. But my my question is more timing. If the council was to delay approval of this contract to the next council meeting, um would that give you staff sufficient time to respond to the low bidder?

We've already responded. There's nothing else to respond to. Um, and that's the question for Brian. I don't think we have any other responses. Do we've responded? They do not have a right to the to see the documents that they requested. Aren't those all public record?

So, we so they did put in a uh protest within the required timeline, which is 5 days from the initial staff determination posting. Uh, just to walk through the process. Um when we put together that analysis, we do go through the city attorney's office, make sure that we're all in alignment and we're very much guided in making sure that we everything we do is legally defensible. Uh in the case of uh this bid, uh and I think this is important to note that um the the issue is that the bidder low bidder did not in sign or provide a signature for the bid itself. So saying, "Hey, City of Fresno, we have a bid. It is fully signed by the officers of the company that was missing and therefore it is not a valid bid and therefore bypassed in accordance with our um resolution for um

so so in essence they submitted an incomplete bid." That is correct, sir. Which by ordinance you're required to reject. That is correct. And has that been communicated that clearly to folks? You would think that as experienced contractors and companies, they would know when they've conducted an error and not appealed. That's such a basic error. So yes, that was communicated in the letter to the contractor. Um, and the request for an appeal, they did ask for appeal was denied because they actually did confirm, yes, hey, we forgot to include this. We're sorry. Can you please still consider our bid anyway? Nonetheless, we cannot. So from staff's perspective, the appeal is concluded.

Yes. and there's nothing else for them outstanding that they need in that process of appeal for bids. City attorney, can you confirm on the record? At this point, um after conferring with staff, there's nothing else that city staff needs to do. Um we would not recommend a response back um to the contractor at this point. Um as far as we're concerned, our process is over. Our appeals process is over. They have been denied. Thank you. Um one last question. What was referenced was that we were not making the documents available that are public record in nature and that we require people to come and obser see them in person. Is that the case? So I like the uh city attorney to respond to that.

That doesn't seem to be customer friendly for our expectations of a public agency. So, it has to do with um our appeals resolution. There essentially outside of the public records act, which is what they've made a request under. Under our appeals resolution, what is allowed is that the contractor can physically come into the city, inspect the documents they need, take pictures of them, do what they need to do in order to formulate their appeal or do whatever else it needs to do. Um, and we infor they were informed of that. And also my understanding is under the public records act they requested additional documents. The problem is is that under the public records act um we are only required to provide a response within a 10day period after they request.

So the request itself may take longer. Um so that's why we allow them to come in and actually inspect. Got it. And so they have to take advantage of that in order for that process to get the documents they need. Because in the public records uh venue, we have millions of requests that we're processing and they're just going to have to wait their turn. Correct. As you guys get to all these public records requests related to everything from our credit card receipts to, you know, the mayor's budget. Okay, those are all my questions. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh do we have a motion, a second yet on I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second by council member Arius. Uh, clerk, please call the role. Council member Perea,

yes. Council member Carbassi, yes. Council member Aras, Vice President Maxwell, Council Member Vang, I. Council member Richardson, yes. President Esparza, I. All right, passes. Seven votes in the affirmative. Motion passes.

All right, 70. Uh, we do have a couple contestant consents. Um, I did have one card and I just saw one person. Tammy, I'll I'll open up on schedule if you wanted to come out and come on down and do your uh your comment card. Uh you all have three minutes. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Tammy Slaughter and I am a seven-month resident of Fresno. I'm here today as both an advocate and as someone who has recently navigated um a highly time-sensitive housing situation. Over the years, I have worked in housing programs, youth advocacy, and community-based initiatives that supported individuals and families in helping them to maintain stability. What I've come to understand both professionally as well as personally is that there is a very critical gap in our system. When we talk about housing, the conversation unfortunately begins at homelessness. We talk about encampments, mental health, and substance abuse, but very seldomly and far less about the moments before the displacement when intervention is still yet possible. Just the other day on Tuesday, I sat in an eviction courtroom filled with residents who were navigating similar circumstances. In a single morning, I had opportunity to hear stories of loss, of income disruption, separations, and the families doing their very best to hold things together. And in my own experience over the past several months, I have observed the steady turnovers, moving trucks that were lining the streets near the end of the month, at which point the 30-day notices are expiring. Additionally, I have seen signs of multiple families cycling through the

same units as evident by mail that I consistently receive in my box. But seriously, I couldn't help but wonder if we are only responding once people fall into homelessness. Are we then unintentionally and subconsciously reinforcing the very system that we claim we are trying to solve? Housing stability is foundational. And when it is disrupted, it affects employment, health, and long-term community stability. Additionally, it places an increasing strain on an already burdened social service system that is left to respond well after the fact. I believe sincerely that there is opportunity here, not just to respond, but for us to lead differently by strengthening prevention focused strategies. This includes early intervention, stronger coordination between housing and workforce systems, and targeted support for residents who are at risk of displacement, but who are still yet within the reach of stability. Now, seriously, this is not about blame. It is about awareness and more importantly, it's about us creating opportunities. There are residents in the city who are doing everything they possibly can to remain housed and with the right support at the right time they can do so. I would welcome the opportunity sincerely to sit at the table and contribute to these conversations to help identify thank you Tammy.

Thank you. Okay. Um, at this time since we have it open a little time before lunch, I'd invite anyone either in the chamber or on Zoom who like to uh comment on unscheduled communication. There are no hands raised on Zoom. Okay, we're going to go ahead and close that. I don't see anybody in the chamber either. We're going to go ahead and close uh that. Uh, council, let's see. We got a couple contested consent items, G and J. Um, Council Member Richardson, are you uh are you up for 2G right now? Absolutely. All right, let's take on 2G.

All righty. Hopefully, uh, if someone can stay into the microphone, we have director measure still there in the chambers. Director's here and staff approached the the dis.

Fantastic. Thank you. Um I I just so 2G has has to do with the second phase of a um for those who haven't seen the agenda, second phase of a project installing the chicanees on the intersection of Granville and Beheimr. Phase one was on Beeheimr. If you're not familiar, those are kind of the curbs that go like this and wind around as you make your way uh east or west right there between uh Granville and Maple. Um and phase two would be putting the same things uh on Granville going north south there in front of those homes. So, the reason I wanted to bring this up is not because I'm contested to it, but because I wanted this to be an example to uh to the rest of of district 6 into the city. I don't appreciate um you know big projects happening in that are going to affect neighborhoods without having first a meeting between whoever is going to do the developing or the building and the neighbors. So, Director Moer was fantastic, transparent, brought his staff out. We met with the neighbors at Copper Hills Elementary School. Uh there were a bunch of people there who were really passionate about it, had questions, but more importantly had concerns and essentially said, "Hey, we understand why this is necessary, but we want to see this. We want to see the reduction of this curb. We want to see this corner redesigned. We want to see a turn lane. We want to see whatever it was." And public works was again just amazingly receptive, responsive, uh and transparent in in going about that. Um so you can expect the things that you asked for during that meeting are going to be prioritized. And I wanted to thank Director Moer. Uh I wanted to reassure the neighbors uh the rest of District 6 that this is going to continue happening. We're going to continue having meetings before anything big gets developed in the area that may uh throw off in one way or another or affect your uh your day-to-day commute or your neighborhood. Um, and director, the the only real question I had for you, uh, outside of just the thanks are, uh, it was brought up that the the turn lane that is on the existing curb right there as you make the right from northbound Brandville onto eastbound Beheimr, that

curb would be filed down in order to make a on that blind corner in order to make a safe left-hand turn pocket almost to be able to turn into the the neighborhood right there on the north side of Beeheimr, that gated neighborhood, because that was one of the complaints we heard. difficult especially um by the compounding fact that there's a blind corner right there. So, if you can just reassure me and the neighbors there that that curb will be filed down um and the the concerns of the neighbors at that meeting will be addressed um and approach as we design and enter construction of this. I would be grateful for that and I would be happy to uh to support and vote yes on 2G.

Yeah, good morning council. Gus Ranguel uh project manage manager with the uh capital projects department and that is correct. uh we are reducing the uh that curve so that uh the the vehicles can go into the residents can go into the community and uh have enough space. Fantastic. That recommendation didn't come from me. It didn't come from public works. It came from the residents and uh that's really what we'd like to see. So, thank you very much. If no one else has anything to say about this, uh motion to approve. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Clerk, please call please call the role. Council member Perea. I. Council member Carbassi, yes. Council member Aras. Vice President Maxwell, hi. Council member Vang, I. Council member Richardson, yes. President Esparza,

I. 70. The motion passes. All right, great. Um, we're on to 2J. Um, let's see here. This was pulled by both council member Arius and council member Carbasi. Um, council council member Arius. Oh. Oh, this is D2. Okay. Yeah, I appreciate that. Brian, director, sorry. Could we please just get a brief two to four sentence summary of what we're doing today?

Uh, good morning, council member, uh, council president. Um, so, Brian Bar, director of general services. Uh, we handle lease administration for, uh, the majority of the city. uh to answer your question in just a few sentences is uh for the past 12 months or so we've been working with uh EBIT uh the the tenant for Riverside Golf Course to clean up some ambiguity in the current lease agreement um related to payment of a fees, how capital improvements are handled, what we're calling old business before we get into new business, which is a discussion on potential capital improvements um in the future.

Okay. Thank you. Um and then can you just go into brief detail about the ape's fees and what those are? Yeah, so um uh ape's fees are um by the master fee schedule uh required to be paid um for $1 per round of golf played that's deposited into the city's account. Uh what we discovered uh thanks to the parks department and the wonderful team over there is that uh uh due to ambiguity in the contract that it was very unclear that the uh tenant was supposed to collect and remit those funds to us. So we've discovered that and we've now fixed this problem. So that is going to be paid to the city on a go forward basis starting June 1.

Got it. Um I do want to commend you and Cliff and Director Agiri for really moving the ball forward on this. I know that uh um it's taken some time and I do want to commend of course um I say Corsco but EBIT as well for um working with you uh but you guys really got a lot of progress done. Now what I want to do uh just briefly so Riverside Golf Course is a municipal golf course and that means that everyone's a member. You don't have to pay some very I don't know how much it costs very expensive upfront fee to join the club and I mean you any member of the public can go and play. Correct. I believe that's all I know about golf is happy Gilmore. So, please forgive me. You and I are in the same boat.

Okay, sounds good. Aaron, you can bail us out if we need to. Um, gotcha. So, I want to be clear. This this and this course pulls people not just from northwest Fresno, but throughout the region. Would that be correct based on data? Yes.

Okay. Um, so what I'd like to do is to Bernard, if you wouldn't mind, I have some slides. We're going to show those briefly. This is the same operator operates the facility in Bicelia Valley. What is it called? Valley Oaks. Thank you. And so currently there is a driving range which is basically just netting and a grassy area and that's that's it. Just the standard I guess driving range. Nothing too fancy at all. They have built a facility out there. Uh mostly paid for by the operator. If you can go to the next slide. It's kind of like let's go one more. It's kind of like Topgolf Light where it'll be covered. There are rows. There is a new uh beverage, I'll say beverage to be polite, area out there. It is familyfriendly and it'll offer not only a unique activity out there that'll make us more competitive in Fresno uh and open to the public. It also offers more income potential. I think it could be pretty good income potential for this site and help us uh continue to fund our capital improvement our fund and potentially use it for other things in this not just in the in the in the entire system, not just at Riverside. So, one more slide. That's the last one. Okay. Go back to the previous one. Okay. That's an example of people having golf and having a beverage and having a good time, but it's also open to younger golfers as well. Another program you guys have done a great job with is supporting first te. I know the operator is committed to first te. This is kids from all different ages, very young ages that have a they go to all different sites, but the hub really is Riverside Golf Course. So, what I'd like to do today um is I I want to move forward with this item. I think it's long overdue and I commend all of you for making this possible. So, I'll make uh Council Maurice, I know you have some comments. Can I make a motion and then you comment? Okay. So, I'm going to make a motion to approve this item with a

couple of conditions. Number one, that you start negotiations with EBIT on making that I'll say top golf flight possible in this area. I know they have the area lined out and they have a general proposal, but there's got to be meetings set up for that. And um also uh that we include uh in that discussion a plan for uh what's the kids I just mentioned the kids program first first T I'm sorry first T and I'll work with you on that more closely that's more of a side project that I'm interested in doing with them not necessarily EBIT but I'd like to work with you guys on that. So that's my motion. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. and I do it for the rest of my time. Great job. Thank you all, Council Varius. Thank you, Council President. I I too am not a golfer. Um, so don't know anything about the sport beyond the fact that we have a publicly owned golf course. Uh, but I am a little bit concerned because ape fees basically is just an additional charge for customers. Correct. That is my understanding. Yes. And where does that money go? You know, I'm gonna have to ask Director Gary to come up because that's collected through the parks department.

Good morning. Aaron Giri, parks director. Uh, Ape's fees goes into our our special fund out at Riverside that helps us go through and fund some of the capital uh improvements and some of the uh infrastructure needs of the facility. So, how how much do you anticipate generating with this dollar additional cost per round or however you guys charge it? So based on the current data from EBIT golf, uh we did see an increase in the rounds of golf, we're estimating about another 40 to $45,000 that would come in with the addition of the Apes fees. So in total, how much do you does the city generate there on any revenue that it gets?

Um so we have a number of of items in and I'd be happy to get you the the actual uh detail, but in their agreement, um you know, they have their rent fee, they have their merchandise, they have their cafe fees. So, there's a number of items that go into generating that that toe that we can get you.

I don't want to get into that level of detail. Um, I I'm more concerned about this. Every time I see an increased fee from the city, whether it's directly through our master fee schedule or indirectly through our private operators, I like to see what is the public going to get exchange for that additional fee, not just simply passing on the cost of doing business. Um, so I was hoping that this fee would be connected to improvements, direct improvements at the facility because ultimately if this facility cannot compete with private golf courses or with Top Golf in Madera coming, then it's going to become a huge sucker of public subsidy in the city at the expense of other neighborhood parks. So, um, what are the chances that you guys can bring this back to us prior to us getting to budget the deliberations of a city? because I'm assuming you want the AC fee approval today so you can bake into your proposed budget. Correct.

That would be part of this amendment. Correct. So, Council Member Carbossi, can we have um I I know negotiations can take sometimes 10 years, sometimes two days. Can we have some assurances that we'll come back with a potential proposal before we begin budget hearings so we know if there's any exposure to the city's budget? No, you make a lot of good points. I I completely agree with you. I think that it would be good to show if we're going to increase the fee. There's potential for this new facility on site. So, why don't you want to amend the motion and then we'll um make it we'll add a timeline before we enter budget negotiations? Do you think it's possible to work with them?

I I I guess what what specifically would you like to see before the budget? If you intend, as the member said, if you intend to extend this contract, if you intend to um change a contract that allows for improvements at the facility, that I'm assuming is going to require an amendment to the contract. I'd like to see that full picture prior to us adopting a city budget.

Council member, I want to make sure that everybody's clear that this is a fee that's in the master fee schedule that all of our most all of our facilities charge. It's just by an oversight and language to the contract. it wasn't being charged here. So, I want to make sure though that we're being careful and not trying to connect a contract extension to the collection of this fee. The fee gets collected. It's it um it goes into the fund to be reinvested in that particular facility. So, it it will stay at the facility.

City manager, is this a fee that had not been charged to customers to date? Um I that's my understanding is that we came across and we realized during budget that it wasn't being charged. It should have been charged. So I would say customers have gotten a break. And I would also say the facility has millions of dollars of unfunded infrastructure and if we would have been charging this fee like they should have been charging it, we certainly would have more money in the pot to be making some of those investments. So the reason I I asked that city manager is this is a publicly owned facility as is Chachchanzi. Chachchanzi.

Yes. Per the agreement, Chachchanzi was supposed to make major improvements. These last few years, the administration has recommended that we pony up $7 million for a new screen, a new um you know field, a new this, a new that outside that agreement. So my point is if there's such potential exposure to a city budget, I'd like to see that before we start talking about a city budget because I have yet to see whether we are 100 million short or 5 million short.

And we can absolutely be talking about what a a plan could be for investing back into the river into Riverside. I just want to make sure that it's not connected with any sort of contract extension. That's where um you know when you're talking about an operator contract extension that is a little more difficult but we can certainly work on a plan. Could the council simply today extend the contract? Um I don't know. I guess I don't know. I don't think it's agendaized that way. I don't know. I defer agenda that way. I don't know

the contract agenda. So couldn't we just city attorney can we just make an amendment to contract to extend it today? Not that I'm going there yet, but I'd like to understand my understanding of the changes in the First Amendment are that we're clarifying certain things that exist already in the agreement to make them clear for both parties. I'm not aware, and correct me if I'm wrong, Supman, if there's no I don't believe where there's a contract extension in front of us. There's there's not.

But I think I I get your concern, though. So, I want to be clear. I don't think any of us are blaming the administration for anything at all. But even though you make a good point, when we increase a fee, like council measures is saying, the public will think, well, what is it for? What am I getting out of it? Yeah, they should have been paying it for years. And I can't tell them, well, you got a discount for a long time. They're going to wonder what's next. We do have a unique opportunity where the operator, I think, is willing to pay a maj hope hopefully a majority of the cost, but if they make a capital investment, they're going to want a longer contract. But if we have to make any investment whatsoever, it I think what the council member is saying is it'd be nice if we can know what that investment will be before we enter budget negotiations so we can work that into our process. So my understanding is you've already uh in a good way jumped the gun and you have a meeting scheduled with EBIT already. Is that correct?

Next, which is awesome. Thank you. So I think council member, your request is if we approve this today in good faith, both tides are back together on track. Part of the condition is you will come back to us before budget with a proposal if it includes a I'm sure it'll include a contract extension because it's going to be a capital improvement project. Is that possible? Speak to that fe

certainly. Uh uh being that uh our first real discussion is uh the 28th I will say we will endeavor we will endeavor to do that our absolute best to do that. What terms are proposed beyond what we've kind of just touched upon already is unknown and we certainly have to work with the city manager's office and making sure that this is something we support.

Well, yeah, because what what I don't want to have happen, I think we're even though we're not golfers, we're pretty motivated here. I think what's going to happen because there's a public impact. I think what's going to happen is I don't want us to make a motion saying, "Well, we're going to request $5 million during the budget for this and we'll wait and see when negotiations are over." If it's less than that, it'd be good to do it up front. Council member, if I may, um I've been to a golf course probably twice in my seven years and both times were related to my kid and his required PE or extracurricular activity. What I saw there was a whole bunch of kids, you know, high school kids from around the city uh participating that day probably because it was related to school day event or whatever. what my concern is that we all have to answer questions why we're charging school sites these students um an additional fee when there isn't a direct nexus to improvement. So I like some level of closure on whether you guys are going to make headway or not on improvement at that facility um prior to us adopting a budget or discussing a budget. We can absolutely say how we're going to spend the $40,000 that's going to be generated. Um if if I understand, you know, we're talking about about $40,000 being generated, we can absolutely be prepared to say how we but what I hear of what you're wanting is sort of the bigger global um plan for Riverside, which if we were doing 40,000 or not has been in discussion. Um, so if you want a $40,000 plan, we can get that to you in a couple weeks.

My concern, city manager, is you've said on the record that it has millions of dollars of deferred maintenance, as does convention center and sound and every other public facility that we own, who also charge apes fees. Correct. So, I want to know what is a plan for addressing those millions of dollars of deferred maintenance prior to you announcing that we have a $100 million deficit in the proposed budget or $5 million, whatever that

amount. We're going to be presenting you a balanced budget. So, we're not going to be saying we have a a deficit because we're required to, you know, we're going to present you a balanced budget. But, um, I hear what you're saying. Um, I think, um, what we're saying about the revenue being generated, we certainly have a list of what the deferred maintenance is. Um, there is no way that the Apes fee is going to tackle the deferred maintenance at Riverside. Um, but we have the meeting with them next week. Um, we do know, you know, I know our former esteemed council member, Blan Jang, is a regular user of, um, of Riverside and, um, you know, has a lot of interest in in wanting to make sure that there are cool improvements out there. I obviously what Vicelia is doing is very cool with the, um, driving range there. And I mean, I think that would sort of be the first look and estimate at what something like that would cost. Obviously, it's going to be more than $40,000.

Yeah, I think former council member Jeang is a little bit too old to join the kids program, but uh I do appreciate the comments, city manager. I think we're veering a little off topic. We just want to be super clear. Um we're not talking, at least I'm not talking about the millions of dollars of deferred maintenance that I I didn't know that. Apparently, it's it's worse than I thought. That's a surprise to me because we've met about this before, but hundreds of thousands. I may have exaggerated. Hundreds of thousands

with with that though. Um, you've always kept your word. All we want to know is now this new facility there. We I received a presentation from the operator. They are eager to go. This could actually generate significant revenue and I want to make sure we get our fair share. We're not going to give the farm away. if we're giving them the permission to do this, we got to get our the taxpayer has to get their fair share. But we don't have any of those numbers. All we want to know is rather than waiting to ask you for a for a trade memo during budget, can can you make sure you're these these folks that directors have done a great job are engaging with the operator so we can have something before budget?

We can engage and we can have discussions whether or not we would have agreement with the operator. Um well, you know, that's a different thing, but we can certainly discuss what options are and what the cost for the council. Yeah, that gives council options. Thank you. Yeah, options and costs would be fine.

Let me say it differently, not to make this a little messier. I want make sure this doesn't become a granite park where we get blindsided by some deferred maintenance health and safety issue. We all get inundated with emails and social media comments and then we get blamed for higher fees and there's no mechanism for us to ask you questions about what's the plan. So I like some version of you guys coming back to us before budget on what progress you've made if any. Like I get negotiations take a while but I've also been here long enough to know that sometimes lease agreements take like five years to get to us. So that's where I'm going. Okay. Sorry, I got distracted. I had too many pe I had too many people talking to me. What were you waiting for an answer on right then?

Okay, enough said. Thank you for hearing us, listening to us, and hopefully not ignoring us. Well, we will have something. I hope it's at the level of to meet your expectations, but we'll we'll look at options. Appreciate that because I think this is going to be a budget item, a discussion at least. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Great. And again, I want to commend the directors and Cliff for their work. You guys made this possible. Thank you. All right. So, we have a uh a motion. You guys good with it? All settled. All right. Uh clerk, please call the role. Thank you. Council member Perea, yes. Council member Carbassi, yes.

Council member Aras. Vice President Maxwell, Council Member Vang, I. Council member Richardson, yes. President Esparza, I. The motion passes 70.

Great. Uh, pretty efficient morning. Uh, we are going to come back for the workshop at 1:45 p.m. for you, Council Member Richardson. That is 1 hour and 35 minutes from now, whatever the time is for you at the moment. Um, so I'll see you all at 1:45. That's bedtime. Whenever you

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All right, we're going to readjourn the meeting. We're back into public open session. Uh we have one more item to go today and that is uh the workshop. Come on down. Our vision zero workshop. Yep. Good afternoon, city council. Andrina Agarero Public Works Department. Um today we have the vision zero action plan workshop for you. Uh we also have the consultant available um online virtually and we also have a second person here in the chambers just in case there are additional questions. We also have city staff here to answer those. Okay. So today's workshop is on the vision zero action plan. Uh the plan uh formalizes a city-wide commitment to work towards zero fatalities and severe injury crashes on city streets while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all users. Um currently, this plan is out for public review. Um that review period ends on May 2nd. Um and with the intention of coming back to city council for formal adoption on May 21st. a little bit of background and the purpose. So, between 2019 and 2023, there were

217 fatal crashes and 629 severe injury crashes in the city of Fresno. Um, in 2024, the Smart America Growth Design, sorry, uh, dangerous by design, ranked uh, the Fresno metro area as number seven as a most dangerous metro area for pedestrians. Traffic safety has been a crisis, not only locally, but also declared at a state and federal level. You'll see a couple of quotes here from the California Office of Trans of Traffic Safety um within their highway safety plan where they call uh and make an urgency to call on um all state and state partners and local partners uh for action. Um at the federal level, the US DOT or Department of Transportation um national roadway safety strategy also calls for that uh crisis. In addition, the US Department of Health and Human Services also shows a concern with public health and safety. I'd also I'd like to highlight that um the US DOT uh safe streets for all grant awarded the city of Fresno to develop $400,000 to develop uh and adopt a vision zero action plan, which is what we are here presenting on and has been worked on for the last 18 months or so. So, this is not the the first time that the city and the community take action on uh roadway safety. Um, this image here kind of highlights all of the work that has been done. Um, and there's some that uh isn't listed just because we didn't have the room to to show it, but just to uh highlight a couple of things. So, the SS4A safe system safe streets for all uh grant has awarded over a

million dollars um to the city of Fresno. Uh we have the uh highway safety improvement program or HSIP uh has awarded over $7 million in the last uh within the last 10 years. Um the California Office of Traffic Safety has also awarded uh parks and the police department um over $5 million for uh efforts goals in the process. Uh the plan is structured in a way where we establish a goal for our city. It is uh it in it does include data data analysis and it is a datadriven uh plan. Uh there was a lot of public outreach. Um and that outreach and the data analysis uh created those recommendations and policies uh programs and strategies that would guide us to reach the goal. So the plan proposes a goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050. That goal is aligned with our state goal um uh with the state of California's goal of 2050. Um, Fresno can continue to work towards this goal by implementing the plans, recommendations, um, and continuing continuing with a proactive approach to traffic safety. Vision Zero takes a step back and looks at the difference in what they call a uh, traditional approach and the vision zero approach to traffic safety. This approach has been adopted at the state and federal level. Um and this plan for us here locally at the city level uh provides us with the steps to keep moving forward uh in preventing fatalities on the city roads. Oops,

that skipped over a lot. Uh here we see a timeline of what has been included in the last 18 months or so. Um lots of community outreach, the data analysis, uh policy analysis, um the identification of our hair injury networks and priority locations uh which all shaped the policies and the programs that are developed into the draft plan that's uh out for review. Comprehensive citywide engagement. Um, citywide engagement is important so that the plan reflects um the lived experiences of the community. Um, the project team did a a variety of different types of outreach events. Uh, it included 12 pop-up events at schools, parks, and established community events. Um, five task force meetings. uh two focus group meetings with youth and seniors, an open house at Fresno City College, uh a walk and talk event uh with uh ENTP over by Manchester along Blackstone Avenue, uh multiple bike rides um and bike clinics along um in support with uh in partnership with um advocacy groups and a safety 101 workshop with uh the community- based organizations. that have been involved. This image here shows that the uh events and and the outreach was done throughout the city. Uh we wanted to make sure that we were equitable in in receiving that feedback. And here we have a list of more than 23 community- based organizations that help develop and guide the plan. Um, this allowed us to extend our reach to more of the community uh and to ensure that the recommendations that are in the plan uh respond to the neighborhood's needs.

What we heard um we received well over a thousand community surveys. Um one of the things we've noticed is that half of those that took the survey uh personally know someone who was injured or killed in a uh collision here in the city. um and 5% of those um individuals have personally been uh injured in a collision. In reviewing the feedback and the conversations we had with individuals in in the city, the concerns are kind of structured around infrastructure gaps um and intersection, I'm sorry, interactions with cars um and roadway road user behavior such as uh distracted driving um driving under the influence, uh red light runners, speeding, um pedestrians crossing outside of crosswalks, and bicyclists riding outside of bike lanes. Part of the process included the five-year collision analysis. So, the plan looks at uh the underlying conditions in Fresno, which is something that we've seen throughout uh planning documents. uh the car dependent land use patterns, the autoor oriented street network, um the roads that accommodate higher speeds, the equity challenges, a diverse population. Um one thing that I'd like to point out is that these concerns um and challenges aren't unique to the city of Fresno. We see other cities that have similar underlying conditions who are also facing um uh tri traffic safety concerns. The crash analysis five years between 2019 and 2023 uh total of 217 fatal crashes 629 severe injury crashes. Um

what I wanted to highlight on here is that of those 293 were um fatal and severe injuries uh involving pedestrians and 78 of those uh were bicyclists. In the analysis, uh, we were able to identify the high injury network. 89% of the fatal and severe injury crashes that occur in the city of Fresno happen on the high injury network. The high injury network consists of 14% of the overall roadway in the city. Um, the characteristics that are shown um for those roadways are our typical arterial roads and our collector roads. And the image you see there is is that high injury network. I'd like to add that what the what this data um shows the 89% of fatal and severe injury crashes are on the high injury network. Um this suggests that if we target the high injury network with systemic safety treatments, we have the potential uh to address the majority of our severe uh severe crashes in the city. Uh top crash trends, 61% of the fatal and severe crashes are vulnerable road users. That is the people walking, bicycling and riding motorcycles. Um that is critical uh that what that means is that it's critical for us to focus on protecting the vulnerable roadway users. Um it also found that 86% of all crashes occur at the inter at at or near uh um an intersection. So safety uh intervention at the intersections would be one of our top priorities. Um and the data also

reflected that 50% of high severity crashes are those associated with reckless unlawful um uh behaviors. Uh we suggest that if we address um the we use policy changes, infrastructure improvements and education um to educate those uh around the behavioral topic then we could address a lot of that as well. Vision zero recommendations. So the plan recommendations uh are organi are organized into three different sections. The uh priority policies and programs, the systemic safety treatments and priority location uh projects. Um these are all structured around the safe system approach which is the the wheel that you see here. safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, uh safe roads, and postc crash care. Each one of those sections has a group of recommended policies and programs um that could be implemented in the next five years uh to address uh fatality and severe injury crashes in the city of Fresno. Um the ones that are highlighted here are the ones that we show as priority on top of being priority within the five years. Uh but those are um so safe road users um uh driving and uh enforcement and training. Um working with uh police department for example to be able to implement something like that. safe vehicles, looking at our fleet um and um implementing additional safety measures that can be put into there. Safe speeds um would be safe and uh context appropriate speed limits. For example,

the one that you just recently passed with these um speeds around schools going from 25 down to 20. That's a perfect example there. Uh safe roads. Um so possibly piloting a a pilot program for red light cameras. Um exploring what um SB720 could allow us to do. Uh the postc crash care is working with our emergency response team uh to implement technology upgrades for quicker uh response times. uh safety data. Uh so working with our police department to ensure that the database is uh the data that we have and is being collected is consistent um and it's coordinated with the rest of the departments to to be able to um work together to reduce those fatalities. Um and planning and coordination. Uh the plan also guides us to establish a vision zero task force that would be ongoing um to evaluate where the city stands at specific uh or various points between now and the five years to reassess, recollect data to see where we're at and track our progress so that we reach that uh vision zero 2050 goal. So that second section um we have systemic safety treatments. Those are categorized into four uh different ones which is travel lanes, inter uh intersection and crossing, speed management and signs and signals. So this is equipped with um multiple uh countermeasures that can be uh implemented depending on what we are trying to uh solve um uh as far as a safety improvement. So some examples of uh countermeasurements that uh are within travel lanes. So road diet taking the

curb to curb uh l uh width and repurposing that to reduce the number of lanes um possibly add a uh uh bicycle facility uh which helps slow down uh vehicles and just take up more space. uh speed management. We've got the contents sensitive speed limits and earlier today today you heard about the chicanees uh over on Beheimimer and Granville. That's an example of speed management to be able to reduce the the speeding there and traffic calming. Uh next one oops next one is the intersection and crossings. Uh so this is the counter measures related to um pedestrian crossings or protected uh left turn phasing. Um median refuge islands to provide typically implemented on a stretch of road that is very wide and it gives the opportunity for by a pedestrian to kind of stop wait to be able to proceed uh in a safe manner. Uh reduction of uh corner radii which slows down the turning movements. uh signals uh signals and markings. Uh those examples are the rapid rectangular flashing beacon or RFB. Um leading uh pedestrian intervals, LPIs, and earlier you also heard about uh Hawk being implemented or constructed by the county over on Granville Avenue, which is the pedestrian hybrid beacon. These are countermeasures that have been proven at a federal level to uh provide for that crash factor reduction. And the third one, priority uh segments and intersections. So with the uh data that was analyzed uh the step one was to look at the data and

find the top 10 um quarters and intersections that uh are are most affected by collisions and sever depending on the severity of the um collisions. Um we took it a step further with step two to further analyze that data um to to find where um the proximity to the bus routes, bus stops uh proximity to these are the added layers that would then um bring the top five 10 down to five that we could implement some of these uh counter measures um and set those as the priority. The top five that made it on to the list based on those added layers um and the analysis that was performed are listed above. Uh we have two major corridors along um Blackstone Avenue, one between Knees and Hearnden Ashlin Shields. We have Belmont, large stretch of Belmont between Palm and Cedar. Uh Fresno Street uh between previously Caesar Chavez and Divisadero Street and Shields between West and First. Um the top five priority intersections are also listed there. Uh Blackstone at H Hearnden, Blackstone at Dakota, Shields at First, Clinton at Fresno, and previously Ced Chavez at uh Chestnut. So these are the top uh five intersections and corridors that would receive further uh recommendations which you which is what you see here. Um so this is an example of what each segment that was highlighted there would be proposing. Um it does have some information to the the mode of the um type of crashes that were there. uh the

lighting conditions, um the top crash types that have been seen, the number of collisions and the severity there. Uh and then it proposes counter measures which are listed by the circles down at the bottom. This one here is for an intersection and it looks very similar with those uh recommendations as well for the uh whole intersection. So part of uh vision zero um is ensuring that we're tracking our progress. Accountability is essential to success and reaching uh vision zero goal. Um with so the consultant developed um what we call the vision zero dashboard. Um this is a public facing dashboard uh that would go live after adoption. Uh but it tracks crashes. It shows where they are. It gives some details to what the collision factor was, the different modes that were involved. Um, it tracks the number of collisions on severity uh based on each year as well. So that concludes my presentation. Um, I am available here along with other staff to answer any questions if those come up. We also have the consultant Mia Candy with tool design uh virtually and we have Josh with DKS who did the analysis of the data. Um and as far as just next steps on where we go from here um is continue to gather uh feedback from the council, from the public um with it closing on May 2nd, be able to incorporate that information and come back to you for formal adoption on May 21st. Um that adoption date is very important to us. Um and the reason why is because we would like to be eligible

for implementation grants through the safe safe streets for all grant program. Um and in order to apply for those implementation grants um we need an adopted vision zero action plan. Right. Thank you. I come back up here to council. I've got Council Member Carbassi followed by Council Member Perea and Carbasi is missing right now. So, Council Member Praa.

Thank you, Council President. Um, thank you, Andrea, for that presentation. You know, my um one of my staff members, he lost his son um from a traffic fatality a number of years ago. Um but he's still a pretty active advocate for safer streets. And so, um, my office has spent a lot of time and resources investing in traffic safety measures. Um, whether it's the rapid rectangular flashing beacons or the speed radar flashing signs. You know, we we've been prioritizing these investments specifically around schools just to help with the whole concept of safe routes to schools. Um, I was I was really excited to see I think it it looked like a policy or one of the priorities was to reook at the red light camera program. I know that's something that our city um had implemented at one point and due to several reasons decided that it was best to eliminate that program, but I think it's time to revisit that conversation. I know that we can install all all the safety improvements throughout our city. Um, but it's really hard to change behavior. It's really hard to change disrupted driving and people speeding and running red lights. Um, I'll tell you that we're making a about a $ 1.6 $6 million traffic safety improvement at Clinton and Vaness because that's one of the um at least for me it's one of the most problematic intersections in District 1 for traffic fatalities. My apologies, not fatalities, traffic collisions. And um that is that has been a priority for the residents in in those neighborhoods. But even with that improvement, I can only imagine that people are still going to possibly run red lights and speed through intersections and what you have it. Um, but one thing that I think

will be really important is enforcement. We can have all the improvements and all the rules of the road, but if we're not enforcing our rules, then it's really hard to change behavior and hold people accountable. So, I know that we have an incredible traffic unit within the Fresno Police Department, but they are stretched thin as it is within our our city. And so, I think tools such as the red light cameras and eventually hopefully speed um speed cameras, I'm I'm hoping that will be the key to finally holding people accountable in our city that exhibit poor behavior. Um, I think last year alone we had more traffic fatalities than we did gun related fatalities. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I heard that statistic from someone in the police department. Um, but it just shows that this is an epidemic in our city, traffic safety. And so I just appreciate the staff taking the initiative and really prioritizing the completion of this plan. Um, just remind me again, when is it expected to come back to us?

Uh, May 21st. May 21st. Okay. Um, yeah, I just want to thank staff for the time and effort going into this. Thank you to the consultants. This is a really important plan that I am looking forward to putting good resources behind so we can implement. Thank you. Thank you. Any other members want to punch up? All right, Council Varius.

Thank you. to piggy back off my colleagueu's comments. I do think this is also a timely um adoption period for us because um one of the biggest challenges for the city has been over the years the only limited resources that we have for these type of improvements have been competitive grants at a state and a federal level and um with the ballot initiative that's been collecting signatures for the extension measure C that dramatically focuses the vast majority of the resources from the uh local tax to local streets and includes these types of infrastructure as an eligible expense and actually requires um complete streets to be built with these uh features included into the construction. So I think us having a plan adopted one that just requires money if those monies come to fruition come this November then effectively early next year we can begin the implementation phase of a lot of this work because my money will finally be available to fund it. So I I do hope we stay on pace to have this adopted soon so folks understand that we have the plan and now it's just a matter of the resources to execute the plan. So I appreciate staff's time. I do want to say that I know you guys are always put in a difficult position from the residents. I'll continue to say this. My biggest lesson as a council member is everybody wants us to slow traffic down in their neighborhood and speed it up in somebody else's. Um I don't know if it's just a societal um fact that we are sometimes a little too selfish and want things to be convenient for us and at times don't mind the inconvenience for others. But each time that our neighborhoods have asked for accommodations to test out things like traffic circles, roundabouts, um crosswalks, active crosswalks. Um you guys have always been in the forefront and I think

too often you guys take the heat um all the blame and the fault for everything that's wrong with our traffic, pedestrian, bicycle, you know, um activities while getting very little very little credit for doing the work that a lot of people appreciate. So, um, thank you all for your work and I believe this council and future councils would be wise to continue investing in these infrastructure improvements because ultimately, u, all of us here at some point will lose our driver's license and we'll depend on bus routes, bike routes, and pedestrian routes to be able to get to our daily lives obligations. So, I appreciate you guys time and effort. Thank you.

All right. Um any further comments? Going once, going twice. Thank you for your hard work on on this u on this plan and we appreciate the update. Thank you.

Yeah, we're all good. That's going to conclude the remainder of our open session today. Uh we do um have quite a bit left to do, just not out here. Uh, so we're going to retreat to close session and uh, city attorney, I'm going to have you read off the um, actually one second. Before I have the city attorney read off uh, the close session agenda, uh, I do want to remind the public we're are joining today's meeting in memory of Ronnie Yunk and Vernon Schmidt. Right, city attorney? Good afternoon. Today in close session, we have item 5A, conference with labor negotiators. All listed, all units listed on the agenda. Item 5B, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, city of Fresno versus Broly 7 LLC and others. Item 5 C, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, one potential case. Item 5D, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation, city of Fresno versus County of Fresno. Item 5E, conference with legal council, existing litigation, Haven number 20, LLC versus City of Fresno. Item 5F, conference with legal counsel, potential litigation, one potential case. We may have reportable items after close session.

Council member Carbosi, you recognize?

No, I appreciate that. Yeah, I just wanted to I just got word that former Fresno County Supervisor Phil Larson passed away today. Um, I know we have two folks that we're honoring at this meeting. at the following meeting I'd like us to enjoy. He served for many many years. In fact, he was really instrumental in Veterans Boulevard um getting initial funding and he was actually there when we we broke ground. So, just wishing his family the best. Thank you. Hallelujah.

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Close session is completed. There's nothing to report from close session. The meeting is adjourned at 3:57 p.m.