City Council - Regular Meeting

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Good evening everyone and welcome to the special meeting of the Madera City Council and the Madera City Council as assessor agency to the former Madera Redevelopment Agency. It's Wednesday, January 14th, 2026 at 7:15. I call this meeting to order. City Clerk Gonzalez. The Madera City Council meetings are open to the public. This meeting will also be available for public viewing and participation through Zoom. Members of the public may also observe the live stream meeting on the city's website at www.mmadera.govlive. Members of the public may comment on agenda items at the meeting or remotely through an electronic meeting via phone by dialing 669-9006833. Enter ID 819-3921-9732 pound. Press star9 to raise your hand to comment and star six to unmute yourself to speak. Comments will also be accepted at via be accepted via email at city council public commenter.gov or by regular mail at 205 West Ford Street, Madera, California 93637. We'd also like to remind members of the audience that Wordley is available for translation services.

Thank you for that. We'll begin with roll call, please. Mayor G here. Mayor Prom Zachariah here. Council member Rodriguez is absent. Council member Montes here. Council member Evans here. Council member Mahia here. And council member Viegas here. Thank you for that. And we're going to skip um down to presentations. We just left the meeting as you saw and did all this at the beginning of our housing authority meeting. So with that, we will begin with presentation. City clerk, do you want to um do a little background on number one, please? Do you want to go to approval of agenda first, mayor? Oh, I'm sorry. I was skipping everything. Yes. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to um bring it back to my colleagues to approve the agenda. Move to approve the agenda as presented. Second.

Thank you for that. All those in favor say I. I.

I. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Moving on on to presentations. We have a proclamation recognizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day and we um at the last meeting at December 17th, we did um select to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Um we do have a proclamation prepared. However, council did not select a recipient for this item. So, um perhaps at the next meeting, council can um decide who they want to present this proclamation to, whether that's it's at the Black History Month celebration or at a different event that's upcoming. But there is a proclamation on this evening's calendar for proclamation recognizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We also have Senator Ana Cavayto's um staff member here that also has a proclamation for the same recognition.

Thank you for that. Then I will start. Councilwoman Evans, you have a comment. Yes. Um, this Sunday is the MLK um, celebration. So, if possible, may I present it at that time to the at the N MLK presentation because Barbara Nelson is the one the recipient that the MLK um, host committee um, selected for this year's uh, humanitarian. So, if that's possible, then we can do that. Yes. Am I colleagues okay about presenting the proclamation at the MLK presentation this Sunday morning? Sure.

So just to be clear for the record, you're not choosing to designate them as the proclamation recipient. You are actually saying we're going to provide them with the proclamation that is being passed in support of it tonight. Yes, that's correct. Do we need to motion that? Are we good?

Okay, sounds good. If we could have Senator Cabayro's office, Arturo, come on up, please. Good evening, mayor and council members. I I looked at the agendas. I prepared a proclamation ahead of time. So, I'm really thankful to be here today. So, I'll go read a bit a little bit. On behalf of the office of Senator Anna Cavayo, thank you to the for the opportunity to be here this evening and present a certificate of recognition and observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This this certificate recognizes the historical significance of Dr. Mother King Martin Luther King Jr. and acknowledges his enduring legacy in shaping the national conversation around civil rights, leadership, and public service. His life and work remain an important part of Fisher history and continue to be recognized across communities throughout California and the nation. This observance also provides an opportunity for the reflection of the values of service, civic responsibility, and respect for one another that is strengthened our communities institutions. At this time, it is my privilege to present the certificate of recognition on behalf of the office of Senator Ana Cavo to the city of Madera. Thank you.

Thank you for being here tonight. If you want to come on up for a picture with the council, the mayor. Thank you. We can deceive that. Well, that goes to get back to musical chairs and everything else.

Thank you. And for the sec second proclamation this evening, we have a proclamation recognizing January as National Mentoring Month. And this is uh the recipient this evening is Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Welcome everyone. I think um we have the vice president Luton is so we have who tonight and your name is okay so come on up Miss Rero and we have board member Alonzo come on up oh come on up everyone [laughter]

at this time I have the honor of presenting all of you tonight on behalf of the council and the mayor this proclamation come on closer I don't bite really. Nathan can tell you uh January is recognizing across the nations as national mentoring month. And we know mentoring is so important um to mentor our young people that are going to be our leaders that are going to sit up here someday and also be in the positions that you are in. So that is very important. A time we celebrate the power of mentorship and acknowledge the individuals and organizations that make a lasting impact in the lives of young people. Since its foundation in 1969, I was just gotten born. Woohoo. Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Central California has served as a pillar of mentorship and youth empowerment, providing guidance, stability, and opportunity to children throughout the Central Valley, which is so important. So these past five decades, Big Brothers and Big Sisters across the Central Valley have positively impacted the lives of more than 30,000 children and families, fostering leadership, hope through one-on-one mentoring and relationships through dedication and mentorship and sitting on the board is very important to make those decision. This community partnerships, innovative programming of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central California continues to inspire young people to reach their full potential, strengthen the fabric of our community. I CC Gigos, mayor of the city of Madera, and on behalf of the entire city council, we do high we do here hereby proclaim January 2026 as National Mentoring Month. Congratulations very much. And if anybody would like to say anything, you're more than welcome to. Thank you very much, mayor. Thank you, council members. Um, thank you for recognizing what mentorship is. Mentorship is something that's very pivotal and life-changing

for the kids of this generation and next. So, we thank you for your support, for your guidance, and for having the same passion that we have. We are proud to serve in Madera County, Fresno Kings, and Toeri. And thank you for your support throughout it all. speech picture with Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Sorry. Three minutes each. Is that too short? Get in there. Roll, friends. Roll. Okay. Ready? One, two, three. One, two, three. One more. One more. One, two, and three. Thank you. Use AI to make us look thinner. Thank you for very much hanging in there so much. This one has all the filters. [laughter] I want to look like Roie. Have a wonderful day. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Keep up the great work. Thank you for being here tonight again. Moving on. City Clerk Gonzalez. Public comment. Members of the public shall have an opportunity to address the city council regarding matters on this agenda at the time the agenda item is called. Speakers should limit their comments to three minutes. On section A, petitions, bids, resolutions, ordinances, and agreements, A1. [laughter] Well, oh, for public comment. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I won't take the three minutes if that's an issue. I thought it was public comment just for this item for items on the agenda

because it's not a regular meeting. But we we can we allow it if I say okay. So, I open it up for public comment.

Thank you so much, mayor, council members, Arnoldo on TV, and to the rest of the team. Uh, Nathan Alonzo, your local government affairs representative for Pacific Gas and Electric. Here to just follow up on an email that I sent the council and the executive team here at the city. For the fourth time in two years, we're reducing residential customer bills on both the electric and gas front. And uh, I think that's quite occasion for uh, me to come by and say hello. So customers will see anywhere between a 3 and 5% decrease uh over the course of the next several months. This is due to a number of the um collections for wildfire efforts and other hard infrastructure investments rolling off the bills. But this is also indicative of and um I think part of a larger effort on our end to see wherever there is savings, if that means renegotiating contracts, if that means um sunsetting different uh efforts or programs in order to create customer savings, we're going to do that. Um so between that and um our continued work on upgrading the substations, the three different substations that provide uh capacity and provide power to the city of Madera. Um we are continuing those efforts. Uh we should be at the conclusion of a couple of those projects uh in the middle of this year. Um and this is on in conjunction and in an overall effort as we promised you on this DAS to u make sure that city of Madera continues to have the electric capacity and the tools that they need to continue leading on the economic development and business attraction front. Um this is the fastest growing county in California. Um and this is at the epicenter of that. So we want to make sure that we are your partner along the way. So, appreciate everything all of you do and uh just wanted to come by and give those quick updates.

Thank you for your comment, Mr. Alana. Way to kick out 2026. Moving on, city clerk. Under section A, petitions, bids, resolutions, ordinances, and agreements. A1 is adopt resolutions approving the ROPs and administrative budget for the period of July 1, 2026 to June 30th, 2027 and authorize the city manager to present the ROPs to the c the countywide oversight board for its consideration and approval. Action on this item is by the successor agency. Thank you for that. And will presented by our financial director, Lima. Thank you for being here this evening. Uh darn it, I did it.

Oh, I thought you did it, too. I was watching almost. Oh, I forgot that one. That one. Ah, darn it. Almost. I had it. Well, I'll try. I'll do better next year. [laughter] I'll do better in 27. Hopefully, if I'm not let go by then because I don't know how to do this. No, no worries. Now I really messed it up. Hold on. And where's my city manager's over there laughing [laughter] is about an all. Yeah.

Byebye. Thank you. Oh, and he's up. Let's just start this all over like that. All right. Okay. You mess this up.

There we go.

All right. Good evening, mayor and council. Mike Lima, director of financial services. Appreciate you as we went through that awkward technological uh glitch. Um happy new year to all of you. Good to see all of you again uh for another year. And what better way to kick off the year than talking about the rocks. Um, so, uh, as a little bit of background for you, uh, in 2011, the California legislature, uh, approved legislation that would, uh, that dissolve the RDA re, uh, redevelopment agencies or RDAs in California. Purpose of the dissolution was to reallocate property tax revenue from the RDAs to other governmental entities such as school districts, cities, and counties. And that was done because the state has funding obligations to the school mostly to the school districts. uh if property tax revenue went to the districts directly, it was less money the state had to kick in. So um so they passed that uh hard to believe we've been doing this for 15 years, but here we are. We are 15 years into dissolution. In consideration of all the projects uh that the RDAs had in progress and also the bonds that were outstanding at the time of dissolution, the legislation allowed for property tax revenues to continue to flow to the RDAs up to the amount needed to pay outstanding obligations. Uh as part of that process, the state department of finance was authorized to provide approval prior to continuing distribution of property tax to the successor agencies. uh doof uses the rops as the mechanism to determine how much property tax is needed to cover ongoing obligations for the upcoming fiscal year. So the fancy way of saying it, the rops is a budget and it's a budget for the upcoming year that uh we have to get state approval in order to uh be able to get the money that we need to pay our bonds for the successor agency. So tonight we are asking uh two things.

We are asking for uh uh consideration of a resolution adopting the ROPs rep uh representing the period July 1st 2026 to June 30th 2027 uh for the city and then also consideration resolution approving the admin budget for the city of Madera. So this is our uh this is this is basically what we're asking the state. There's a few more lines on the actual form, but to summarize it for you, uh we have a request amount. We're asking for about uh $3.4 million uh in order to meet our bond payments scheduled for uh the 2026 27 year. We have admin fees of about uh $25,000 that we're asking for. Uh that covers staff time. It covers um the uh trustee fees. It covers other uh minor fees like that just to maintain the bonds. So grand total just a hair under $3.5 million we are asking for from the uh as part of the ross. So our recommendation is that city council as a successor agency adopt both resolutions both uh first one approving the rocks and then also approving the administrative budget for the period July 20 July 1st 2026 to June 30th 2027 and authorize the city manager to present the ROPs to the countywide oversight board for its consideration approval. That concludes my presentation. I am happy to answer any other questions that you may have.

Well, thank you finance director Lima. Well done. and I bring it back to my colleagues for any questions or concerns. I see none. I open it up for public comment. Anybody online or on Zoom? City Clerk Gonzalez, we have none. Mayor, thank you. I close public comment at this time and bring it back to my colleagues for a motion and a second. Motion to approve as written. Second. Thank you for the motion and the second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for that. And I have to just plug in um Jim Talbert who was our RDA director who has put us in the position that we're so well um set to take care of this program. Yes.

Moving on to our city attorney for close session. Thank you uh mayor. We have two items for close session this evening. Item B1 is public employee and performance evaluation pursuant to government code section 54957B1 title city manager. Item B2 is conference with labor negotiators pursuant to government code section 54957.6 Six agency designated a representative as mayor pro Tim Zachariah and council member Montes. Title is city manager. Thank you. Thank you for that. I open up for public comment. I see none. Anybody online or on Zoom? We have none. Mayor, thank you. I close public comment and we will go into close session at this time. Thank you. I told you so. I told you so.

You heard us.

You heard all the rackets. Mics are on. No, my We are backed and I um hand it over to our city attorney. Thank you, mayor. There is nothing report out of close session. Thank you. With that, we will see you February 4th, 2026. Same time, same place. I adjourn this meeting at this time. Thank you for being with us tonight. Okay.