City Council - Regular Meeting

To unmute yourself to speak. Comments will also be accepted via email at citycouncilpubliccomment@meder.gov or by regular mail at 205 West 4th Street, Madera, California 93637. We'd also like to remind the audience that Wordly is available for translation services.

Thank you for that. Moving on to roll call.

Mayor Gallegos? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Zakaria?

Here.

Council member Rodriguez? Here. Council member Montes? Is absent. Council member Evans? Here. Council member Mejia? Here. Council member Villegas?

Here.

Thank you for that city clerk. We will now have an invocation by pastor Mike from Harvest Christian Church, and please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance by mayor pro tem Zechariah.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

Join me in prayer. Creator, life giving spirit, and heavenly father, we pray for our city council as they gather here today intent on doing good work. As they seek to represent fairly and well those who have given them this task, may their efforts be blessed with insight and guided by understanding and wisdom. May they seek to serve with respect for all. May their personal faiths give them strength to act honestly and with equity in all matters before them. We entrust these men and women and their work into your care this evening. Amen.

Thank you, Pastor Mike and Mayor Pro Jim Zakaria. Moving on to the approval of the agenda. Do my colleagues have any questions or concerns? And if not, I entertain a motion and a second.

Motion to approve as written.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Moving on to the next item, City Clerk Gonzales.

Your presentations, the first presentation this evening is

Thank you everyone, and our guests here in the audience. I would like to call up Christian Brown Johnson to come up to the podium, please. I know this young man as CBJ. I've seen him grown up grown to a man. He was one of my son's best friends, so I have seen remarkable things from him in the last few years.

Not only him, his amazing wife over here is CBJ right here. His amazing wife is another one of of, kind of the circle they all ran with who's doing amazing things in this community. What's, exciting about CBJ or Christian Brown Johnson, it's hard for me to call him that because I know him from from CBJ. He has done, made marks in this community that I have not seen any young person make in years. So I'm gonna have turn put these on, CBJ, because I'm not young like I used to be.

The Madera City Council and mayor proudly honors Eulis' remarkable commitment to raising awareness and vital findings for Parkinson disease for his grandfather. A mission inspired by you your personal journey. You have achieved an unprecedented feat by setting two, not one, two world records in the fastest male to compete in an ultra marathon on all seven continents and the fastest cumulative time to run-in a 50 k at all seven continents. Your devotion to service and excellence leaves this enduring legacy of inspiring of all of us and leaves a significant meaningful mark on this community. So on behalf of the city council and mayor Cici Gallegos, I present you with the certificate of recognition.

And I'm not gonna steal his thunder about why he did this. I want you to hear from him. And his grandparents were very close friends of my parents. We were I was raised with them. His mom helped raise my kids at Christian preschool. It's it's been a family adventure, and like we said, and with my kids, it takes a tribe to raise a young man like this, and he is totally out of a tribe raising him and his wife. So with this, CBJ, congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Well, I just wanna say thank you. It's definitely surprising to go run around the world and you come back home and the whole county and city is behind you celebrating you.

This way, because Let's go. I'm gonna get you the camera so everybody else goes first. Alright.

There we go. Yeah. So last year, I've been a little bit of backstory. I've been running, doing ultramarathons and other endurance events for the past almost thirteen years now. Last year, I wanted to do something around the world. And as I was putting this project together, I thought, you know, this needs to be something bigger than myself. And watching my grandpa go through Parkinson's and many other people in this community, I figured why not dedicate this to that and bring awareness to Parkinson's and do it around the world? And you'd be surprised how many people I met around the world while I was running that have been impacted by Parkinson's. So at the end of end of the day, when I finished this, finished up in Miami with my last 50 k, had the whole family there. Was, like, the most exciting moment of my life.

One, I was excited to set against world record and have my family be there. But second, I knew that I left a small impact on this world, bringing awareness to Parkinson's, and we raised over $11,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation through this whole journey. So thank you. And I'm gonna continue doing that this year. I got a lot of big events coming up, so hope to continue making Madera proud. And, I really appreciate all the recognition. So thank you very much.

Ready? One two and three.

Four one two. Awesome. Thank you

so much. Sandy Jane, you wanted some No. To the mic and introduce who's here for you?

Yeah. That would be I think

I'll

introduce the important people back here. So my grandpa, David Brown, is back by the door. And he's he's the man of the hour. He told me as before I did this whole thing, he said, man, you're becoming famous. You're on the news. And I said, no. You're the one that's becoming famous. So then my grandma, Jerry Brown, mom, Courtney Brown, my brother, Ethan Perkins, and then my wife, Kelsey Montagna. She's the volleyball queen of the Valley. Thank you, guys.

Appreciate you being here.

And this evening's second presentation is a certificate of recognition recognizing Pistoresi Ambulance.

Thank you for that, and I will call up the Pistoresis and Kathy Moggos, her number one right hand person. And so this sicker cert certificate of recognition is her Pistoresi ambulance that has been in our city for over eighty years. Monte Pistoresi, unfortunately, has passed away, but he is in here with us tonight in memory of all his hard work and dedication that he's brought to this community to make sure that we arrive safely to any hospital that was needed even if it was our our children at Valley Children's. We they made sure that we made it there and that our lives would continue with the support of all of them. So we thank you for your dedication of service.

So on behalf of the Madera City Council and mayor, I'd like to express this deepest gratitude to the Pistoresi Ambulance and family for more than eighty years of essential and excellent emergency based services throughout the Madera community. We honor this legacy of service, dedication, and deep commitment to providing patients safely and cared when needed the most. And with that, I would like to present you with this certificate of recognition, and thank you for all these years of service that you've provided to all of us.

Yeah. Sure.

Well, thank you everybody for, for doing this this evening. I really appreciate it. I wish my dad could be here Going back to the 1942 when my grandfather started, my dad started in the early, early sixties. I started in '83 when I was 17 years old and still in high school, full time in '89. So my life has been nothing but being in the ambulance service, in the ambulance business. It's it's it's it was big to our our our family. It's wonderful to be part of the community and friends coming in here tonight. I see a lot of friends. I see Gary Price. He used to work for us.

Everybody here on the council, Rohee. I tried to sell his dad insurance back in '87 when I got out of college. I tried to sell insurance first. Just seeing everybody, that's really wonderful. And there's been so many people in the community that has supported us from the police department and the fire departments and law enforcement. And and I gotta include Chowchilla because we're in Madera now. Everybody knows us, but Chowchilla is where it started. Started. So, it's all of Madera County, and they've been very supportive of us as well. I mean, starting from one ambulance with part time police officers in Chatchilla to one ambulance to Madera, then a second one ending with 10 of them at the very end.

So it's been an adventure, and, it's been a great a great life for me, and I thank all of you. And, of course, my two wives, my real wife, and my office wife here. Almost forty years for both of you, really. Yeah. So, Kathy started here when she was 17 years old and in high school, the only job she's ever had. So, she is my right and left hand person at the office, and and, we've done a lot together. So, anyway, thank you all very much. I appreciate it.

And if we can let the record show council member Montez has arrived.

One two

Mary, if I may, I just I did wanna add again. Thank you again for all the service that you've provided not only to the city, but the entire county. You know, from my interaction, especially being here in Madera, you guys have always been very supportive with a lot of the fundraising. And I can say that firsthand because you've always been there to provide not only services, whether it be the July 4 and what have you. Really appreciate everything you have done. And, again, thank you for all the service.

Alright. What a what a positive note to start our meeting off with this evening. Next, we have presentation number three given by our city manager, Rodriguez.

Thank you, mayor. Members of the council, Ronaldo Rodriguez, city manager. This evening, I would like to introduce two of our newest employees to the city. These two individuals are part of the city's executive team. And with that, we have David Berletic. He's right there, David, if you wouldn't mind saying. As the council's aware, David started a couple of months ago. We we spend a considerable amount of time during the recruitment process. David brings multiple decades of experience to the city planning department. David's gonna be overseeing our planning department as the planning manager.

David has worked both in the private sector, the public sector. I don't wanna start seeing how many years, but it's three decades, I think, or pretty darn close to it. He's, he most recently worked for Watsonville, and we're very fortunate that he decided to come back to this part of the valley. David has previously worked for the city of Ridley and the city of Sanger, and then again, for some private consultants down on the South end of the valley. But, again, we're we're very fortunate that David decided to join us, and, we're looking for a lot of good stuff out of David and his team. So thank you, David, for joining us. And second, I would like to introduce Harpreet Gandhi.

So How's it?

Very similar to David, Harpreet brings close to 30 of experience. Harpier grew up in India. He attended graduate school in Canada. He's a licensed civil engineer in Canada. And most recently, he's been working in Washington right right across the border on the American side.

And so so so for a while there, he was going back and forth, and he just recently relocated to Mid or to this part of California a couple of months ago, and he started with us, the January. David I mean, Harpierre is our new public works director, and his counsel is aware, the public works department oversees a division of approximately 70 individuals. Sometimes, probably next to the police department, they're the most, and fire. They're they're they're probably the most forward facing department in the organization with potholes, sewer, and water. They're very active.

They're highly visible, and there's a lot of moving parts with public works department. So Harpira has a tremendous amount of experience. We're looking for a lot of good things out of Harpira and his team, and, again, we're very grateful that he chose Madeira. So welcome, gentlemen.

Thanks.

There is a pair of glasses here.

I think they're mine, city manager of yours.

I so.

Haven't got used to wearing them yet. Well, congratulations, gentlemen. Would you like to say a few words, or are you good? It's up to you. You're welcome too. Thank Well, we'd like to thank you on behalf of this council, for choosing Madera. We all live here and born and raised here, and it's a great city. We are growing, and this community is welcoming you both with open arms. Thank you for choosing us. Okay. Moving on to the next item, city clerk Gonzales.

Next item is public comment. The first fifteen minutes of the meeting are reserved for members of the public to address the council on items which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council. Speakers shall be limited to three minutes. Speakers will be asked but are not required to identify themselves and state the subject of their comments. If the subject is an item on the agenda, the mayor has the option of asking the speaker to hold the comment until that item is called. Comments on items listed as public hearing on the agenda should be held until the hearing is opened. The council is prohibited by law from taking any action on matters discussed that are not on the agenda, and no adverse conclusions should be drawn if the council does not respond to public comment at this time.

Thank you, city clerk. If there's anybody in the chamber that would like to speak, come on up to the podium. Good

evening, madam mayor, city council members. My name is Harlan Repeteau, and I'm the founder of the Big Valley Horseshoe League. I am here tonight to request your support to fund and build eight additional horseshoe courts at Redwood Park. The additional courts would qualify Madera to hold national and state wide tournaments. As I have mentioned before, the additional courts would benefit our community by expanding our existing league and hiring bring revenue into the city from out of town pitchers.

Next month, the Big Valley Horseshoe League will begin our twenty sixth year in Madera. During that time, we have worked closely with the Madera Parts and Community Services, building and servicing horseshoe courts throughout this county. The league members recently refurbished two horseshoe courts at the Pan American Senior Center and now seniors will now have two usable horseshoe courts to play on. I will continue to appear before this council to request your support to construct these additional courts because I believe the new courts will provide additional recreation and revenue to this city. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comment. Do we have her address? Can we get that? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you for your next comment, please.

Good evening. I'm John Stocker, the photographer, and I wanna publicly acknowledge the efforts of Brandi Garcia and the planning department to expedite my home occupation permit and business license permit. It's only had two weeks between from the time Adam Romero at Parks and Rec asked me to photograph his youth basketball league in picture day, and she got it done in time. So that turned out. So I'm in compliance with the laws of the city. The main reason I'm here is to speak against the mileage tax. I came out several weeks ago to speak against the mileage tax. Y'all looked at me like I was from the moon. Several things about the mileage tax. The primary thing is that 30% of this city lives below the poverty line.

These people cannot afford the mileage tax. The mileage tax is imposed on them, which is will be an average of $1,200, put on your DMV tags, people will have their cars impounded. They will not have transportation. This is a serious upset to the citizens of the city, and I'm asking for your consideration. If I could strong-arm you, I would into coming up with something, a proclamation, a resolution, whatever, publicly denouncing the mileage tax and objecting to the mileage tax. We know the state of California, Sacramento, is not to be trusted. I ran some numbers. There are about 17,000 cars in the city. County transportation commission says that every driver drives 17,000 miles a year. The tax goes from 6 to 9¢.

If we take the low end 6¢, 17,000 cars times 17,000 miles times 6¢ is $17,000,000 they're gonna pluck out of our community. This is money people could use to it to you know, for their quality of life. They upgraded their standard of living and for other things, you know, to improve the city with. I really you guys, please take a stand against this mileage tax. Be public with it. Let the heart of California going on record is saying we oppose this mileage tax. It's gonna directly impact our community. I was talking to the produce guy at Rancho San Miguel. I didn't really understand that there's substantial farm workers that drive from McFarland up here to work. People are not gonna be able to get to work.

The kids are not gonna be able to get to school. They're not gonna be able to buy their food. I implore you, and I really respect and demand that you guys come up with something publicly opposing the mileage tax. It's a serious thing. They're saying right now it's only gonna be electric cars, but, hey. Look. 30% of the population can't afford electric cars, but it's only a hop, skip, and a jump until it's on gasoline powered vehicles. So and and other things I've come across is that Latino voters prefer gasoline powered vehicles. So I need you guys to step up and help defend the low the least in our city. And, actually, in Matthew 25 verse 40, Jesus says, what you do for the least of thee, you do for me. So we need to look out for the least of us in our community and oppose the mileage tax. Please step up. Take the bull by the horns. Be public. Say something.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment, sir. Next comment.

I'm here to request, that there's two traffic lights in Madera that are really slow. They have a there's really serious lag time between changing, which means traffic sits there longer. I drive patrol between midnight and 8AM, and I learned how to get around this situation, but most most of the motors in Madera will sit there for five or ten minutes until light changes. One is at the intersection of Tozer Street, and it's the intersection right there by Millview School. And then the other one is up north on, whatever, North Lake Street turns into in the the country.

I think it's Road 27. There's a traffic light there, and it takes a long time. And there's no there there won't even be any cars there. And it and until I get there and then it sits there for a long time, and I either have to do a right hand turn and do a u-turn and then another right hand turn to go north rather than light changing. I don't know since I don't know how the circuitry if it's inductive in the ground or if it's a timer. If it's a timer, then they could just adjust the, you know, the circuitry to change faster. But these two things are starting to to really bug me. And I don't know about I don't would have think everybody there'd be fuller in here complaining about that. But so that's what I

came to to ask. Perfect. Thank you for your comment. Well well said.

K. Thank you.

Is there anybody else in the chamber? I've seen on city clerk consults. Anybody online or on Zoom?

We have none, mayor.

Thank you. With that, I close public comment at this time and move on to the next item.

Item

a one under public hearings is initiation of proceedings for the annexation of the Sienna Estate subdivision into Community Facilities District Number 2005 Dash 1.

Thank you for that. I'll be presented by our senior planner Smith. Thank you for being here tonight.

Thank you, May. Good evening, council members. This project represents the annexation number 18 for Sienna Estates residential subdivision into the Community Facilities District. The district is a way to create a special tax for public service funding throughout the city when generated by new development. The district to be annexed is highlighted to the northeast of the map, and the map shows

Robert, if you can hold your presentation for just one moment, please.

Sure.

We can just circle around the podium.

Robert, can you try speaking one more time, please?

Yes. How is that? Can you hear me okay?

Unfortunately, Robert, we we cannot hear you, but we think it's on our end. So if you can just bear with us for a few seconds.

Sure.

The alternative is you can try screaming really loud.

Gonna start working.

Me know when you can hear me okay.

We may have to go to the bullpen, Robert, and we may have we'll probably do it when we turn to the. K. So for this one, if it's okay, we we will go to the bullpen, and we'll have Will present this item. Okay. And then that buys us a few minutes potentially to resolve the I and the issue because the next item, we do have someone on Zoom that's gonna be making a presentation. Okay.

Sounds good. Thank you.

Just checking you. This the audio is still not good.

Robert, it appears that you're trying to say something, but, unfortunately, we can't hear you. So I think Will is going to jump in here. I'm sharing.

Okay. Good evening, mayor Gallegos, mayor Pro Tim Zachariah, will tacit community development director. Please bear with me. I'm gonna kinda wing this and forego the PowerPoint presentation, which I don't have immediate access to. The item before you this evening is the initiation and proceedings for the annexation of the Sienna Estates subdivision and the Communities Facilities Districts 200501.

The CFD two thousand five zero one is a public services district which covers police, fire, parks, and storm drain maintenance. The subdivisions which are or the subdivision which is of issue this evening goes back quite a ways to 2005. I think most of the council members are aware this is out between Story Road and State Route 145. There are a total of 113 units, which comprise a portion of the original phase one subdivision of 20051 or I'm sorry, Track 05 S 19 as well as the entirety of Track 22 S 01, which is phase two of the subdivision and would complete the subdivision in its entirety. The annual rate per unit at this point in time is five hundred and eighty three dollars and ninety eight cents per dwelling unit.

Based upon the 113 units proposed being annexed into this district, that would result in an annual revenue of just under $66,000. The resolution that staff is requesting the council adopt this evening, would declare the council's intent to annex the territory, to authorize the levy of special taxes therein and set the public hearing date. And I am going to go down to the resolution quickly here. The public hearing date, set by this resolution would be 03/18/2026. That will conclude my presentation. I am available to answer any questions the council may have. Thank you.

Thank you for that. I bring it back to my colleagues for any questions or concern on this item. A1. I see none. I will open up for public comment. Is there anybody in the chamber? I see none. Do we have anybody online or on Zoom for a one?

No. We do not, mayor.

Thank you for that. I will close public comment at this time and entertain a motion.

Motion to approve as written.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, community development director Tackett, for that and senior planner for hanging in there with us.

Mayor Gallegos? Mhmm. In order to buy additional time because we're going to need a little bit, could I suggest perhaps going to the consent calendar next? And then if we have to, we'll jump just to the council items only. That will give, Alicia and Will a little bit more time to make sure they get everything resolved.

Okay. Sounds good. K. Moving on to the consent calendar. Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion and one vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If discussion is desired, a member of the public or a member of the council may request an item be removed from the consent calendar as it will be considered separately. I bring it back to my colleagues for any items that they would like to entertain. I see none. I open it up for public comment at this time. I see none. Do we have any community members online or on Zoom?

We have none, mayor.

Thank you. With that, I close public comment and bring it back to my colleagues.

Move to approve consent as presented.

Seconded. Well,

that's a tie. Okay. Ladies first, thank you. A motion and a second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Those opposed? Great. Motions passed unanimously. Thank you for that.

City attorney, should I just continue the agenda?

Could I suggest, just as a

suggestion A recess?

We could do that, or you could jump down to selecting a recipient for February proclamation. I don't know, Alicia, if we can just do that orally, or is that something we need a presentation for? I'm trying to figure out what we need a presentation for.

So the the situation is with the audio when they're presenting remotely. So any present presentations we are doing within the chamber are okay. It's those that are presenting remotely that we're having sound issues with.

Excuse me, mayor. Can just for the benefit of those online and those in the audience, all the items, will be presented inside of the council chambers with the exception of item

A two. Thank you, mayor. Okay.

So can I continue this agenda until we get it? Okay. Sounds good. So city clerk Gonzales will be going to the petitions and bids on d.

Item d one is agreement for management services between Madera Irrigation District GSA, city of Madera GSA, and Madera Water District GSA for the domestic well mitigation program. Action on this item is by the Groundwater Sustainability Agency.

Thank you for that. We presented by our director of engineering. We'd love to hear about this, so you've got this.

No. I maybe don't.

I see it.

Alright. Thank you.

With the help of Alicia. Anyway, thank you, mayor, council members. This is one of many, many reports with regard to the to Sigma and or groundwater sustainability plan, and this specifically is about the dry well mitigation program, item d one. A little bit of background. Council considered two items at the 11/05/2025 council meeting.

There was a short update that included discussion of a letter to be sent to the Department of Water Resources describing recent activities by the Groundwater Sustainability Agency regarding DWMPs. That letter was sent on 11/21/2025. Also, as part of that agenda item, approval of memorandum to understand with respect to the cost sharing of implementation of the domestic well mitigation program that was approved. That memorandum or MOU was with the Madera Irrigation District and the Madera Water District. Partnering with MID and Citi and m MWD.

Council has considered multiple aspects of a DWMP in recent months of concerns amongst various GSAs and the inability to coalesce around a unified groundwater sustainability plan. That went on for a little while. And then the the the group of seven GSAs, they started diverging in how they were going, so we started considering partnering with the Madera Irrigation District and Madera Water District. We did coalesce around that, and that particular particular study is gonna be or this particular item is gonna look at the operations management of the DWMP with MID and MWD, how that would function. The latest actions establish how management will occur.

MID will manage the d w the DWMP, including selection establishment of agreements. We have established an agreement with David's Engineering. They will be looking at the various different wells that are brought forth by property owners that indicate that their well has gone dry. MID will also be advertising, promoting the d w t DWMP. There was a well driller request for coal locations as one example that went out in 01/20/2025 twenty twenty twenty five.

That actual advertisement request for qualifications also shows up on our page under the Sigma, particular page there. The DWMP itself. The program under the management of m MIT has been advancing at a rapid pace to meet cities or state mandates. There are multiple documents that have been prepared, some of which would have been finalized or even advertised. I just mentioned the other one that had been advertised, the RFQ.

Other pieces of that include the DWMP program summary, the summary flyer, well owner application or program application, a well owner agreement, a well driller request for qualifications, and a preapproved well driller agreement. How does the program work? There are four of them. I'm gonna be focusing primarily on the overall, and then I'm gonna go ahead and look at a a a a parcel owner part of that. Phase one is the application.

That's submit application along with $100 fee. Because prequalified wheel drillers required to assess the well, the cost of application would include that. Now if a if a well went dry, a property owner would still need to bring in a well driller to go ahead and look at that. We're just essentially saying focus on this prequalified list. Phase two approval, the DWMP administrator, which is David's engineering, would look to approve it based upon a number of factors that they look at.

They wanna ensure that the well is actually dry, not just failing for other reasons. The landowner then signs the landowner approval form and the one time DWMP agreement. The landowner selects a well driller from the preapproved list. Presumably, that might be the well that they used to go ahead and do the application, but it could be anybody else, on the prequalified list. The well driller must also sign the landowner approval process form.

Phase three is actual construction and final inspection. The construction must begin with one one hundred and eighty days. When complete, the well driller provides well driller documents or documents to the landowner. Within fifteen days of that, the landowner submits the documents to the administrator. Failure to provide those documents within fifteen days could result in forfeiture of the of approved amount.

Now this has been saying up to what you've been seeing recently is approved up to $35,000. Generally speaking, it's almost always gonna gravitate towards $35,000. The wells are just that expensive these these days. And then in phase four, which is payment, the well driller will be reimbursed directly for the $35,000. It will not go to the property owner, and additional costs are paid for the land by the landowner.

Again, we're just paying for the well itself. Relocating equipment and things like that generally aren't included. And those other things can include pump installation, abandonment of the old well, water testing, electrical work, trenching, piping. And then I've reviewed some of these documents. As I came through the last time looking at them, I I realized that those documents are going to change over time.

They're just a work in progress. Conclusion, overall staff's depending that the CINDI, MID, and the MWP MWD DWMP is well prepared given the impediments that were first encountered when attempting to pull together, all seven GSAs within the Madera subbasin. And a little bit of about the work group meetings, those haven't occurred since about October 9. I'm not sure when they will begin again. Council consideration tonight, consider staff recommendations to approve the agreement for management services between Madera Irrigation District, City of Madera, and Madera Water District GSAs for the domestic well mitigation program.

With that, I'd be happy to take any questions.

Thank you for that report. Bringing it back to my colleagues. Council member Rodriguez.

Yes. Thank you, Keith, again for that report. So, hypothetically, Keith, earlier, we we had a concern of a citizen. Again, I'm not trying to make that into a discussion, but if someone within the city had a well or someone within that same situation, how would that be processed? I I saw the the steps there, but how would how would that be processed for someone to go out and get that

I think it provides an opportunity for that property owner. The way it is right now, I I I did pull up that particular parcel beforehand, and if we do have the address right, it's on the South Side Of Adele, just a cup two or three parcels in from Lake Street to the West Of Lake Street. The way it is right now, the if they are within two if a parcel's within 200 feet or so of a of a city water main, they're expected to extend that. The the in general, the theory is that if you're within 200 feet or so, the cost of extending is approximately equal to the cost of drilling a well.

So and just wanna throw this out there. But because the cost of extending is no different than the cost of mitigating that well, would then be, this particular, plan that we're putting together with the domestic, well mitigation, would that not cover that?

It might. The the low that that location, there's there's two things going on there. If that if that well went dry recently, I would say that there's a very good chance. If that well went dry I have records of that going back five years or so in emails, and it appears as though it dry long before that. So there will be need to be a determination that that well going dry was as a result of the lowering water table.

I think it's a reasonable assumption or even assertion that that would be that. And then, yes, 35,000 could potentially go to that property for a dry well. And in this case, instead of replacing the well, we would we would require that the waterline be extended for that $35,000 or so.

So and that and that's I'm I'm glad you you you explained that. So is that language somewhere in there for something like a one off like this in case something like this happens? Because I'm I'm assuming this may come about in the future where people are in proximity of city water, and maybe they happen to have a well that fails. Therefore, hey. Do I just connect, or do I go out and get, that mitigated through this plan?

As we as we've discussed it, between MEWD and MID and and even the other GSAs, I've I've always said I would like to see, anything within proximity of the city, the those amounts of money be applied to extending the water system rather than drilling new wells on the periphery of the city. So in this particular case, it's it's not a far cry to go ahead and say that we would do that now. It's not written down at this point, but it it's a it's a good interpretation, and maybe we do need to write it down, but I don't I don't necessarily think we need to. If we do need to, easy thing to do.

Okay. Well, I concur with your your assumption of how things should be done, especially if they're within city proximity. And I think in the future, we just don't wanna leave any council or any other GSA with their hands tied, and they can't do anything. So thank you again. Appreciate that. And and, hopefully, we can relay that to some folks that may experience some of those issues.

Yeah. We we will. In fact, I hope that it works that way with the county also because we've had at least one. We've had at least two or three now that have been within proximity of the city, and I would like for the county's program when implemented to do the same thing.

Yeah. It makes sense. I mean, yeah. Thank you.

Mhmm.

Great question. Councilwoman Evans. Okay. So because of where the property is located on Adele and because of the the water lines, the houses that are in need of right now with the the wells being dry, will they also automatically be able to be piped into the line that's there, or what will have to take place for that to occur?

As I as I see it right now, it would be it would be their responsibility to contact a a design engineer or plumber to go ahead and extend that to the property. The city simply doesn't have staff at this moment to go ahead and do a piece here, a piece there, and and so on. But it's within council's discretion to go ahead and make those decisions. We just shift, and we move as we need to move. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Sure.

Thank you, Keith. I have one more question, but I just wanted to chime in. So at the stage that we're at with this where we're at with this program, is the county at the same stage where we're at, or are they behind or in front of us?

I think that they are behind potentially potentially by a large amount. Now this this program has been coming together very quickly, and the MID has been on top of it and moving it Yes. Very quickly.

I only ask that because if we have conversations about them hooking to the city waterline, but if the county's not where they're at right now, it's gonna detain us from helping them to connect to us.

Yeah.

That's why I do ask. Okay.

Well, the the way it can work is that if if a well if if there's a well that went dry within a certain time frame, the the agency has the ability to go ahead and look backwards to go ahead and fund for those wells that went dry prior. There are a number of wells that are out there that have been dry for a year or two or three and could conceivably claim this, many of those wells have been I'd like to say many or all of those wells have been funded by, the self help enterprises. The state has or had a fund available to pay for dry wells, but they're very picky on that. They won't pay for waterline extensions.

Okay. Councilwoman, Mejia. Thank you, mayor.

I know that you said that it's 35 up to $35,000 per applicant, and most will probably be using the money just because it's so expensive to build the wells. But, if for whatever reason there were a case where there would be leftover, does that money just go back to the fund, or how does that

It it they won't they will not receive that extra money. If they have if they have an actual cost of 25,000, they'll pay 25,000, and and and and it it just won't be paid. The way the program will work from year to year is that the city, Madera Water District, and city excuse me, Madera Irrigation District will be paying in a certain amount per year. It's like this first year, I believe it's a million dollars from MID, about 200,000 from Odero Water District, and 60 something from the city. That number can go up or down in subsequent years, but that there'll be a discussion amongst all GSAs on a year by year basis.

And so, hopefully, we don't see a lot of dry wells coming forward in the future. We're still seeing them. I saw one come through in the last week or so, but almost all of them are outside the city.

Thank you. Council member Rodriguez.

Yes. Thank you. And I appreciate those comments, Keith, because when you say hopefully, I think for us as a city and especially the other GSAs, we have to acknowledge that if we're not recharging this basin, then we're not doing our job in trying to make sure that we replenish the water tables. Because, essentially, the reason why these wells go dry is because we're not taking a proactive approach in trying to make sure that we aggressively recharge. I appreciate the fact that we had this partnership with MIT, and I we and I hope that this council would agree in the future to continue to be more aggressive in creating more basins and or recharge projects to be able to make sure that our city is not affected, kinda like our partners to the south.

I believe Fresno has done a great job over the last couple decades in making sure that they have an aggressive recharge program. We too can do that, and I think we have to assert that alongside the partners in our GSAs. So I just wanted to comment. Thank you.

Yeah. For certain.

With that, I'll open up for public comment. I see no one in the chamber. Online or on Zoom, city clerk Gonzales.

We have none, mayor.

K. I close public comment at this at this time, and I bring it back to my colleagues for a motion.

Motion to approve as written.

I second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, director of engineering. Moving on.

Excuse me, mayor. If we may request a brief, break in an attempt to reset the Zoom audio for those online, if that would be appropriate. I'm gonna say five minutes.

Okay. Then I will, do a temporary temporary recess for five minutes, everyone. City clerk Gonzales, can you, give us a two, please?

Item a two, consideration of general plan amendment, GPA 2,026 dash zero one for the 2024 dash two thousand thirty two housing element update.

Thank you for that. And our community development director Tackett will begin his presentation for us.

Good evening again, mayor Gallegos, mayor to Pro Tem Zachariah, council members, Will Tackett, community development director. The item before you this evening is a general plan amendment, to update the housing element for the February cycle. I'm gonna give just a brief presentation that provides some context within the general plan, and then I will be introducing and turning it over to our housing element consultant, with Michael Baker International. So this is a plan amendment. The housing element is a component of the general plan, and general plans are required pursuant to government code section six five three hundred, to be adopted by local agencies.

Purposes of general plans are they act as a supreme document for local land use. They typically establish a long term vision, typically within the fifteen to twenty five year window, which allows the community to decide how it balances interests. That includes locations in new housing, industry businesses, public spaces, and identifying, what is suitable for conservation. They also identify how to manage public infrastructure, facilities, transportation, and they identify the goals, objectives, and policies for future growth, development, and management of the city. And then when we take, action on development entitlements, we look for consistency with the general plan prior to approval.

State of California requires eight mandatory elements, for general plans. Those are listed down the right hand side in the table with a brief explanation of what each element does. Again, the housing element is one of those eight mandatory components. It addresses the regional housing need or RINA, which is a specific number of units the city must prove it has zone capacity to accommodate. It focuses on removing barriers, identifying decreasing local regulatory constraints to housing productions, and it's intended to ensure equity, providing sites for all income levels from very low to above moderate.

Housing elements must be updated every eight years, and, again, that is the reason for the twenty four to two thousand thirty two cycle. We have the eight mandatory elements within the box. Along the bottom dark green bar are listed, the City Of Madera's housing or City Of Madera's general plan elements. And the state does provide that cities can adopt optional elements such as air quality, etcetera. And with that, I will stop my presentation.

I would like to introduce Hannah Krietman, our lead planner with Michael Baker International, our consultant that was selected to assist us with the housing element. And I wanna say I'm just elated at the job they've done. They've done an incredible job for the city. They performed, just exemplary, and we're here today due to their efforts. So with that, I'm going to put my phone up to the speaker here and turn it over to Hannah.

Yes.

We are seeing your presentation.

Alright. I've done that. Are you muted on the room? I mute myself on my end too long so you're able to hear me. Okay.

Are you

Yeah. I'm talking about muting your computer on Zoom. I'm literally just putting my phone up to the mic, so we'll get the audio that way. Try one more time. One more time, please, Hannah.

So much, Will, for the introduction. So as Will mentioned, we are the consultants that worked on the housing element update. I am Hannah Kretman. I'm I'm a housing specialist for Michael Baker International. We're going to give you an overview of the timeline of how we got to this point and a discussion of what is included in the housing element, including the arena sites and notable programs.

As of January 16, the California Department of Housing and Community Development or HCV has indicated that the city of Madera housing element is conditionally compliant. Full compliance is condescend upon adoption of the element and the subsequent rezones as outlined in the housing element. Today, we are seeking adoption of the housing element only, and actions on the zone changes will take place at a later date. So here is the timeline that led the city to conditional compliance. This included several methods of community outreach and public review.

We had several meetings with HCD to discuss technical revisions, which allowed the housing element to reach conditional compliance with only one official comment letter from HCD, which is less review time than average. On January 16, HCD provided a letter of conditional compliance indicating that the housing element will be compliant once it is adopted and the subsequent rezoning is complete. The housing element is comprised of six main chapters. The review of past accomplishments reviews the 2016 to 2024 housing element and evaluates progress on housing goals, objectives, and policies, determines the effectiveness of these policies, and describes how these policies will be incorporated in the 2024 to 2032 housing element. The element also reviews progress towards meeting the 2016 to 2024 arena and effectiveness of serving special needs populations.

The needs assessment evaluates characteristics that inform housing needs, including population trends, demographics, employment trends, household characteristics, housing stock characteristics, housing inventory and market conditions, and preservation of at risk units. The assessment also analyzes housing needs of various special needs groups, including elderly people, large households, female headed households, people with disabilities homeless people, farm workers, and extremely low income households. The sites and resources of the housing element provides an overview of available land resources and residential sites for future housing development. It also evaluates how those resources can satisfy future housing needs, reviews financial and administrative resources available to support affordable housing, and discusses resources available for the development, rehabilitation, and preservation of housing in Madera. The chapter identifies specific sites with capacity to meet the arena.

It is important to note that the inclusion of a site does not require jurisdiction or landowner to build or finance housing on the site. Suitable sites are selected only to demonstrate the capacity for housing. The constraints section identifies and evaluates factors that may put significant constraints or burdens that limit or constrain the production of housing to meet our local and regional housing needs and the goals and objectives of the general plan. The AFSH chapter or affirmatively furthering housing chapter barriers that restrict access to opportunities and identifies goals to address the impacts of systemic issues such as residential segregation, housing cost burden, and unequal educational or employment opportunities. To the extent that these issues create and or exacerbate discrimination against protected segments of the population.

And finally, the housing element update includes programs that the city will implement over the next eight years. Each program has an action, timeline to complete the action, funding source, implementing agency, and where applicable, a quantified objective or geographic target for the program. The city of Madera Services Department is largely the implementing agency for the housing element program. The compliance of the City of Madera's housing element was due on 01/31/2024. Since the housing element was not found in compliance in 2024, the city will be subject to builder's remedy until the housing element is found in substantial compliance.

This means proposed affordable housing projects where 20% of units are lower income or 100% of units are moderate income or emergency shelters is not are not subject to the city's zoning code or general plan land use designation. The city may be required to approve these affordable housing projects unless the project has a specific adverse effect on public health and safety in violation of state or federal law, is proposed on land zones for agriculture or resource preservation, or does not have adequate water or sewage facilities to serve the project. The city is also vulnerable to litigation, loss of local permitting authority, and loss of state or federal funding. This slide highlights some of the key considerations and important points regarding the RINA allocation as well as what the city's responsibilities are to provide for the RINA and the housing element. Every eight years, as Will mentioned, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD, issues a quantity of housing units by income level reflective of the housing need of a region to each council's government, or COG.

The COG then allocates a portion of this regional housing needs allocation or RENA to each jurisdiction in the COG region. The RENA is broken down into five income categories to evaluate housing need based on the area median income or AMI for each metropolitan statistical area. Each jurisdiction was then draft a housing element to demonstrate the capacity for the allocated arena or the city's share of the regional housing needs. The primary responsibility of Madera is that the city always maintain sufficient land and site capacity to meet the remaining arena for the entire eight year planning period from 2024 to 2032. This means that there always must be appropriate zoning and development standards in place for the arena to be built.

As noted in the second bullet, the city itself is not obligated to construct housing. Whether and to what extent housing is developed on each site is completely up to the property owner. In the housing element, the city identifies eligible and suitable sites. Sites are identified based on zoning, size, existing land use, and lack of environmental and other constraints. For For each site, there's a projected number of units that are reasonable to be built in the eight year period.

The unit projection for each site also considers the potential income level for each unit. If the site is developed at a lower density or intensity or for different incomes than were projected, the city must make up any lost capacity within six months. For example, if a site is projected in a housing element for a 100 units and a project is developed for 70 units, there would be a net loss of 30 units of capacity. The city must either rezone or identify a new site for the net loss of 30 units within six months. Alternatively, if a site is projected in the housing element for a 100 lower income units and project is developed on that site for a 100 market rate units, there would be a net loss of a 100 lower income units.

As discussed, in the fifth bullet, HCD recommends including sites and zoning above the base arena. This will avoid the city needing to engage in continuous rezones as arena sites are developed. This is known as a buffer. This avoids the need to continuously rezone or upzone land to maintain the total arena site's capacity. The City Of Madera housing element includes a 20% unit buffer, which is pretty difficult.

Lastly, it is important to state once again that listing or mapping a property as a arena site does not require the city or the property owner to develop the property. The primary role of the housing element is to demonstrate capacity for housing development in the city. The six cycle RINA for the city of Madera is 6,240 total units. As shown on the table, three net is broken down by income category based on the area median income or AMI, and the AMI is typically based on a family of four in the county. Three net is broken down by income category to ensure that housing is provided for all income levels and available for all members of the community.

Current pending projects and the EDU estimated trends can be counted towards meeting the RENA, and the remaining need is met by identifying sites with opportunity for housing and by rezoning as needed. So this is a map of the selected RINA opportunity sites. The colors on the map represent the income levels that the sites are projected to meet. This is based on state of California guidelines for size and density. Generally, only sites that are between half an acre and 10 acres with densities above 20 dwelling units per acre are eligible for lower income households per the state of California guidelines.

To accommodate for a shortfall of sites and provide for adequate sites, the city is rezoning 82 parcels over a 123.4 acres to r three and increasing the density of the r two zone from zero to 14.52 dwelling units per acre to zero to 20 dwelling units per acre and increasing the density of the r three zone from zero to 24.2 dwelling units per acre to 20 to 50 dwelling units per acre. This rezoning will encourage housing mobility, create housing opportunity, and ensure there is adequate capacity to meet the remas. So in this map, green represents the sites for lower income households. Pink represents the sites for moderate income households, purple represents the sites for above moderate income households I'm sorry, blue represents the sites for above moderate income households, and purple represents sites with a mix of identified incomes. Overall, the goal is to distribute the arena across the city with good distribution of transit, jobs, and services that help make housing efficient and affordable.

The housing element includes 27 programs that are separated into six broad categories. These six categories help ensure the city is addressing the wide variety of housing needs in the community. The categories are housing production, removal of government constraints, housing preservation and rehabilitation, special housing needs, affirmatively furthering fair housing, and housing education and community outreach. Following include some of the notable programs in the housing element. Program one is the rezoning plan.

The city will rezone to provide adequate sites to meet its housing needs. This includes rezoning 82 parcels for a 123.4 acres to to the r three zone as previously discussed. Program a two is, as also previously discussed, the increasing of the densities for the r two and r three zone. R two, which is currently zero to 14.52 units per acre, be rezoned to zero to 20 units per acre, and the r three zone will be increased from zero to 24.2 units per acre to 20 to 50 units per acre. Program a five is the program for accessory dwelling unit production.

This program includes efforts to encourage ADU production, including highlighting the existing ADU bonus program, adopting a set of preapproved and prereviewed plans, developing promotional and educational materials, and monitoring ADU production and affordability levels. Program d one includes a set of incentives incentives for and technical assistance to developers for housing projects that are affordable or for special housing needs. The term special needs households covers all types of special needs households, including people with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, female headed households, senior housing, transitional youth housing, or any of their identified special need housing types not listed. Efforts include expedited processing for projects with lower income units, incentives to developers, including modification of development standards, continuing existing financial assistance through the city's grants administration division, and technical support and outreach to developers. Program e one for neighborhood revitalization includes a suite of existing and new efforts to support neighborhood revitalization.

It includes the existing neighborhood revitalization program, revitalization, and redevelopment fee waivers, a windshield survey, adopting an adaptive reuse ordinance, home rehabilitation grants, and funding prioritization. And finally, program e two for place based improvement says that the city will continue to implement and develop programs and strategies to create safe space improvements in areas of the city with greater need. Improvements include park enhancements, pedestrian enhancements, cycling construction, accessibility compliant with ADA, transit improvements, and water and sewer infrastructure improvements. The city will prioritize funding and efforts in the comparatively lower resource and lower income areas of the city as identified through the AFSH chapter. On January 16, HCD issued a letter of conditional compliance to the city of Madera, noting that full substantial compliance will be reached once the housing element is adopted and the rezones noted in the housing element are complete.

Therefore, the next step is adoption of the housing element. And once the housing element is adopted, we will notify HCD of this adoption. The city will then need to prepare the noted rezonings before reaching full compliance. And I also did want to note that, of course, the housing element went to the planning commission on January 20 and was recommended for adoption. Thank you so much for your time, and congratulations on reaching this milestone.

Thank you, council members. Either myself or Anna will be available to answer any questions.

Wow. What a heavy hefty, hefty lift that was. And to hear the comments to this consulting, MBI consultant, firm, we thank you for their hard work and dedication. With that, I will bring it back to my colleagues, council member Rodriguez.

Yes. Thank you, mayor Gallegos, and thank you, Hannah, for your presentation. Will or Hannah, if one of you guys can answer, like, what makes, these elements exempt from from CEQA? Why why is it exempt from CEQA as far as I mean, you're you're having to reclassify density and what have you and possibly in zones that are going to, accommodate a certain why would it be exempt from CEQUA? You know, I've heard this before. I just wanna make sure I get clarity.

So it is exempt based upon state passed legislation, and its staff's belief that the purpose behind that is to streamline the approach to getting into compliance. The state has been faced with a housing crisis for, at minimum, the last six to seven years, adding additional cost for CEQUA, additional timelines, or length of time to, achieve compliance with the mandatory element of your general plan. I believe that to be the reason why that legislation was passed. Legal counsel may have a different opinion. Hannah, if you wish to add anything, please raise your hand, and I'll get you back to the mic.

No. And last but not least, so when it comes to environmental, I mean, obviously, CEQUA, being exempt, through this process here, throughout any of the the incentives, I guess, developers would want to, jump on this because, one, you don't have to go through this lengthy process. But could there be any potential environmental issues that can be contested? Just throwing it out there.

Can I chime in on this one? Please. You know, given where California is today, no matter what you do, there's always a potential issue. I could be sued for having purple hair. And as you can see, I do not have purple hair.

Yes. You do. Uh-huh.

Or either that or I'm very color blind right now. So can you be sued? Yes. Are they likely to prevail? No. The state has passed these laws. They've mandated that the city engage in these laws. HCD has approved these. Is there risk? Yeah. There's always a risk. But given where we are right now, now, the city has stronger arguments that it is compliant with CEQUA and is implementing state law.

And, again, because the state or HCD is, mandating that we have these particular, Reno numbers, therefore, it's an expedited way, but also a an exception, so to speak, to try to get this underway and meet those numbers?

Would say that's correct. Yes. And our, Hannah does have her hand up, so let me get her back on speaker. She may have something to add for us. Go go ahead, please, Hannah.

I just wanted to clarify too. Only the rezoning itself is exempt from CEQA. Projects within this rezone area are not CEQA exempt. So that will cover some of the potential environmental concerns as well as when developers come in to develop housing projects in these rezoned areas, they will still need to complete the full CEQA process. And also, the ability to use the SB 131 exemption that allows the rezoning to implement the housing element to be exempt does require you to draft a full notice of exemption, which includes minor evaluation of the project site's location and potential fire zones, wetlands, and that kind of thing as well.

Thank you, Hannah, and thank you, Will. That's all I have, madam mayor.

Thank you for that question. I will open it up for public comment at this time. I see no one in the chamber. Do we have anybody online or on Zoom, city clerk Gonzales? With that, I will close public comment and bring it back to my colleagues for a motion.

To approve. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you, consultant Craikman and our staff for that heavy and commitment to get this done. We appreciate it. Moving on, city clerk. D two? Item D two is

the first amendment to the city manager at will employment agreement.

That will be presented by our HR director, Silva.

Yay.

Alright. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council. So the item before you for d two is a first amendment to the city manager employment agreement. This report has been prepared at the request of city council.

So the city council actually approved an employment agreement for the city manager in late twenty twenty four. Since that time, the city has approved memorandums of understanding with the four bargaining units, updated standard terms and conditions for department heads, as well as updated the employment agreement with the city clerk, all with consistent terms, regarding the economic pieces. The city council and city manager have negotiated modifications to the city manager's employment agreement consistent with those same, provisions, and an amendment has been prepared, which is what is before the council this evening. So the proposed amendment includes a provision for a 3% cost of living adjustment, effective in the current pay period, 01/2426 with pay date 02/13. It includes a longevity program, for continued city service at ten, fifteen, and twenty years.

However, city manager does not yet qualify, but in the future would qualify. It will provide a retention bonus, for the current year in 2026, to be paid in the next payroll. It will add the Juneteenth holiday as a recognized city holiday and then replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. The health benefits will be set, for the city's contribution equal to the core vision dental for '26 and 2027 plan years. After that, there will be no automatic increases.

The existing language ties to other language. It's kind of a little bit of a chain there that provides automatic increases. So this will stop automatic increases consistent with all of the other, and we use an agreement that we're entered into this year. The term is being extended by one additional year, so the term will now be until December 2030. And then we had some, legal updates to comply with California law regarding designated person for family sick, and then bereavement provisions for the duration of leave as well as reproductive loss leave.

So the estimated cost as shown in the staff report for the COLA to be effective the January through the end of the fiscal year 06/30/2026 is about $2,700, round numbers. As I said, he is not yet eligible for longevity, and then the lump sum payment with roll ups is $1,573 for a total fiscal fiscal year twenty five twenty six cost of $4,278. Alright. So I just went through a summary of the terms, and our government code provides in section five four nine five three d three that the legislative body must make an oral report summarizing the proposed terms, and our city clerk will have an announcement to comply with that.

If approved, the proposed amendment to the city manager's agreement will modify the existing agreement as follows. Number one, extend the term of the agreement one additional year. Number two, provide a 3% cost of living COLA increase effective 01/24/2026. Number three, provide a tier three I'm sorry. Provide a three tier longevity pay program for continued city service.

Number four, add Juneteenth as a recognized city holiday. Number five, provide a $1,500 retention bonus to be paid February 2026. Number six, set the city's contribution to health benefits equal to the core plus vision plus dental for 2026 and 2027 plan years with no automatic increases thereafter without amendment to the agreement. And number seven, update family sick leave and bereavement provisions to comply with California law for designated person leave duration and reproductive loss leave.

Alright. That concludes the report. I can answer any questions.

Thank you for that. I'll bring it back to my colleagues for any questions or concerns. I see none. I'll open it up for public comment. Anybody on the chain in the chamber? I see none. Anybody online or on Zoom?

We have none, mayor.

Thank you. I close public comment at this time and bring it back to my colleagues for a motion.

Motion to approve as written.

Second. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for that, HR Director Silva, for your presentation. Moving on. Next item.

Item d three, consultant services agreement with Westwood Professional Inc. For Sunset Park Design and Engineering Services.

Thank you. Presented by our parks director, Abar. Abar, thank you for joining us this evening.

You're welcome.

Hope I can get this. Hopefully, that doesn't look like I can. At least, yeah,

I don't need I don't see it. I did this. Okay. Share. Oh, that one. We do. Share.

Got it.

Okay. Oops.

Good evening. Madam mayor, mayor pro tem, council members, and colleagues and guests. Joey Abert are presenting item D three for a consultant services agreement with Westwood Professional Service for Sunset Park design and engineering services. Before I go on, let me just say this is, one of these items. You take a position sometimes, and I've been here in this role for approximately four years now and I think this is one of the first one of the first items that I was approached with with Sunset Park.

So here we are four years later and we're just now talking about who says government doesn't move quickly but, this was definitely a work in progress over a number of years, and it's good to see that we have a line of sight into moving this project forward. And so with that, this was kind of a learning experience for myself, and a lot of discussions that took place to make this happen to get this far. So, in summary, the city owns approximately one acre of undeveloped property located on the North Side of Sunset Avenue between Westbury Boulevard and Liberty Lane. On 04/07/2025, the city released request for qualifications, RFQ 202425Dash29 for Sunset Park, design and engineering services. On 05/05/2025, Cinco de Mayo, the city received six statements of qualification from interested contractors vying for the opportunity to provide the professional design and engineering services for Sunset Park.

Here's a, picture of the area that we're talking about. I think a lot of people are familiar with this area because I know I get a lot of calls, since I've been here about what are you gonna do with this this spot here. I think even a number of service clubs have offered to help, but, it doesn't quite work that way. So, it's it's good good to see that we we we are following the protocol proper protocols. This is what it looks like today.

Close-up, you can see it's a vacant spot, but a a lot of traffic goes past this area. After evaluations of the statement, staff is recommending awarding, the RFQ to Westwood Professional Services in the amount of $174,405. On September 18, 2024, staff brought before council an informational report summarizing the intent to proceed with the development of Sunset Park. The following steps at the time included contracting out professional design and construction services to bring the park to fruition. Staff committed to returning to the council with updates as the project progresses and as contract contracts are prepared for consideration.

The scope of work to be requested would include tasks such as development of conceptual plans based on community feedback, surveying and documenting existing conditions for environmental purposes, finalizing a final design concept, producing engineering's estimates of probable construction costs, producing bid ready ready engineering drawings and specifications, incorporating industry best practices and standards, and assisting through bidding and construction phases of the project. Asking for a lot of help is what I'm saying. So, this park difference differentiates itself from recently built or soon to be built, new parks in the city and that Sunset Sunset Park is not funded by a grant. Rather, Sunset Park is proposed to be funded by development impact fees, diff. There would be no grant performance timelines or funding guidelines or funding restrictions associated with the park development and the precise cost is unknown until the design is prepared.

A unique aspect of this r RFQ is that the consultant will facilitate community meetings to discuss potential design amenities, investigate existing conditions, and garner consistent consensus on the project by the community. If you remember some of my previous presentations when we talked about James Talbert, there was a lot of community involvement in that. We're gonna follow the same process basically with this and get a lot of community input before we move forward. But the consultant will help will do that, and we'll work with them. So that that's what I want to find you know, emphasize.

The consultant will will then refine aspects of the project into two feasible conceptual design alternatives, cost estimates for this conceptual designs, and they summarize ongoing maintenance expense in the garner consensus on a preferred alternative, and we'll provide an update to council. This aspect will ensure that community and council be involved in a more personalized manner through the design process of the park. The city received six statements of qualification from interested, contractors that responded to the RFQ. The procurement manager reviewed the six qualifications statements initially for compliance with requirements, completeness, and responsiveness. A committee of city staff independently reviewed the proposals that were submitted.

The committee members' evaluation included reviewing the following criteria per the RFQ process, overall experience and qualifications in park design and construction related projects. Maximum points for this were, 25. Experience and availability of key personnel, maximum points for that aspect was 25. Quality of understanding and project approach, maximum points, again, 25. The procurement manager completed the reference checks. References carried a maximum point allowance of, again, 25. As you can see, here's the table of the respondents and the weighted total and the rankings. And and Westwood came out on top. We're we're we're familiar with them. Actually, we're familiar with most of these folks on here, but, we've worked very closely with Westwood in the past.

And like I said, this was a day dependent summary, so they came out on top, and that's who we're recommending. With Westwood ranked as the most qualified firm, staff, proceeded to negotiate with the firm for the service service fees. And we were very, I mean, we spent a lot of time going back and forth on this to kinda figure out where we want. We don't wanna spend a lot of excess money on the design, but and we knew how much money we were dealing with in the diff, and we didn't wanna overstate things. So, the final negotiated amount for these services is a $174,405.

Rest Westwood was ranked the highest by the review committee out of the six proposals. They represented the best value for the city. The third one would bring the following value to city. They were established in 1972. They're full service multidisciplinary professional design and engineering firm, providing services to the public and private clients.

They have been able to to support public parks and recreation projects in the area and the greater Fresno area since 2015 with experience on more than a 100 projects. Their local experience includes Centennial Park, Knox Park, Frank Bergon Senior Center, fence installation, McNally Park Basketball Court, the and Madera sidewalk improvements, Valley Children's Hospital, and over 15 parks and recreation spaces for the city of Fresno. Their statement of qualification presented a clear understanding of the project scope and what is being asked to them. Funding for this, for the design of this park will be sourced from, like I mentioned, from diff funds. The current balance, of the diff fund is $4,200,000, and that was as of January 27 where we took a good hard look.

Although, nearly 3,000,000 is already encumbered. This funding will cover the costs associated with design phase and sub subsequently, the construction of the park. However, DIF may not be used for ongoing park maintenance. It should be noted that while the city is has recently been proactive in enhancing its open spaces, the vast majority of funding for these projects has been secured through grants rather than diff. And so that I mean, that seems to come up a lot here, but, this wouldn't be different.

Here's a table. I think this was in your staff report, and I just, it shows the amount that's encumbered. And I just wanna bring your attention that in your staff report, there's a slight difference. I think we had a a minor adjustment because we're the table we're trying to display was the encumbered amount, not the amount that we've already spent. So there's a $300 delta $300,000 delta between Tozer Park that these actually, that the city has to grant for the states for, as the match that we have to do for that grant for Tozer.

But the bottom line is, as I mentioned earlier, the current amount as of January 27 was $4,200,000 that we have, in the diff. So I just wanted to make that clarification clear. The cost of the actual construction services for Sunset Park will be determined based on findings from the design phase and community feedback and available funds. Once the design is complete, the anticipated expenditure expenditure is expected to align with costs of similar parks and amenities developed over the past months. We we kinda know, you know, what parks costs, notwithstanding inflation, but, they're not cheap.

I just wanna make them make that known. Our recommendation is that we adopt a resolution, awarding a consulting services consultant services agreement with Westwood Professional Services on under the request for qualifications 202425Dash29 for Sunset Park design and engineering services for in the amount of a $174,405. And we also wanna amend the fiscal year twenty five twenty six budget approving related expenditure line items for the ex execution of the consultant service agreement with Westwood Professional Services Inc. And that concludes my presentation, and I'm here for any questions if you have any.

I will bring it back to my colleagues for any questions and concerns. I see none. I open it up for public comment. Anybody in the chamber? Anyone online or on Zoom? We have none. Thank you. I close public comment at this time and bring it back to my colleagues for a motion.

Move to approve.

Second. Thank you for that motion and second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for that intense report, Parks Director Apper. We appreciate it. Next item.

Under administrative reports, item e one is city contribution towards the Madera County Economic Development Commission, EDC, for fiscal year 02/2627 in the amount of a $194,268.22.

You for that. And I'll be presented by our EDC director Gallagher. Thank you for being here tonight.

K. I don't until I just like it. Click it? Mhmm. Okay. Click here?

Probably wanna use the mouse. Right here. Right? Yep. Okay. Thank you. Well, good evening, honorable mayor and members of the city council. I'm Christina Gallagher. I'm the director for Madera County Economic Development Commission, and I'm here today with Lois Leonard, who is my staff, who's been here for twenty years. So she's a huge help.

I'm here today to discuss the MCEDC's budget request as well as provide a brief overview of our organization and outline our goals for the coming year. At the MCEDC, our work focuses on several key areas, including marketing, lead generation, and tracking, and maintaining memberships in various regional organizations. In addition, I regularly provide our board and executive committee with legislative and state budget updates related to economic development, ensuring they have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the broader state economic landscape. The MCEDC is a joint powers authority made up of the city of Madera, the city of Chowchilla, and Madera County. Our mission is to position Madera in a way that maximizes its economic viability and expands employment opportunities throughout the region.

My goal for MCEDC is to attract businesses that provide living wage jobs and benefits, businesses that allow Madera residents to live where they work, purchase homes, and ultimately enhance their overall quality of life. Our efforts include business attraction, expansion, and retention, as well as guiding businesses through available incentive programs. We also provide data and analysis to real estate brokers, local governments, and the public, and we administer local loan programs to support economic development throughout the region. We're active at various trade shows throughout the year, where we have the opportunity to build and cultivate relationships with developers, real estate brokers, and site selectors. These relationships are critical and can ultimately lead to attracting a wide range of businesses to Madera.

We continue to strengthen these connections by maintaining consistent communication with them throughout the year. In addition, MCEDC produces several publications, including our annual report, marketing packet, and biannual real estate update as part of our ongoing efforts to market Madeira through every available avenue. And I have some here for you guys if you want them. We also maintain and actively use our newsletter, which reaches more than 800 subscribers, including site selectors, real estate brokers, investors, and other key stakeholders. Through the newsletter, we share information on available properties, economic development activity in Madera, and important events taking place throughout the community.

Additionally, we have recently updated our website to better reflect the modern Madera of today. The updated site highlights new developments, includes a frequently asked questions page, and provides access to the monthly updates that MCEDC presents to the executive committee and the board at each regularly scheduled meeting. As part of our marketing efforts, the MCEDC maintains active social media accounts, which we use to promote the city's small business revolving loan program, highlight business groundbreakings and grand openings, and share relevant news and MCEDC activities. Over the past fiscal year, MCEDC has expanded its social media reach, adding a 130 new Instagram followers and 94 new LinkedIn followers. MCEDC has also launched a new initiative to highlight both new and established businesses throughout the city.

Through our social media accounts and electronic newsletter, we aim to encourage residents to shop locally, increase tourism, and foster community support for our local businesses. The MCEDC MCEDC receives business leads through our website, our membership with Central Valley Economic Development Corporation, GOBiz, and direct requests from brokers and site selection companies. I'd like to highlight our recent work with GoBiz, which has resulted in several successful outcomes. One notable example is our participation in the business ready sites program, through which we submitted a business ready site within the city of Madera. This city has been the site has been approved and is now live on their website.

This program is highly selective. Currently, only 25 properties are listed throughout California, making this a significant accomplishment. The industrial market in Madeira remains strong and competitive. Vacancy rates have dropped 2.8%, reflecting supply of available space and sustained demand from industrial users. On the retail side, Madera's retail vacancy has risen to 5.7.

In response, the MCEDC has been actively engaged in working with new businesses and collaborating with local governments to explore opportunities for future growth across the cities and throughout the county. The MCEDC consistently engages in confidential discussions to explore new opportunities for the city and has been actively involved in a number of projects with both local businesses and city staff. We help guide businesses through incentive programs, workforce initiatives, and connect them with valuable resources all while addressing the challenges they may encounter. So as we look back to the last fiscal year, I'd like to highlight a few recent projects. The North Fork Mono Casino has broken ground and is now under active construction with an anticipated opening in the 2026.

Additionally, the Madera Community Hospital has officially reopened providing much needed health care services to both the community and local businesses in the area. Other recent highlights include the groundbreaking of the seven Eleven Travel Center on Avenue 17, the completion of a new 50,000 square foot building at Freedom Industrial Park, which we promoted through the Go Biz Ready Sites program, like I mentioned before, and the celebration of UltraGross forty year milestone as leading fertilizer man in Madera. Additionally, Madera Unified broke ground on the King Hussein School made possible through generous land donation from Span Construction founder King Hussein. The Madera County Food Bank also opened its new warehouse off Highway 99, expanding its capacity to serve the community. Camarina Health opened its senior health care facility off of Amend Avenue.

And last but not least, the governor announced that California will award Gimme Health Foods 2,800,000.0 in Calcompete's tax credits if they expand their manufacturing operations to Madera. In addition, I regularly update the executive committee and the MCEDC board on legislative and state budget activities through that may affect economic development in Madera. I have drafted new legislative principles document, which will be presented for approval at our next executive committee meeting, which will provide a clear framework for my office to take positions on relevant bills. We are also organizing a legislative mission trip for the MCEDC executive committee to strengthen our engagement with state leaders. I serve as a board member of the Madera County Workforce Development Board and maintain regular contact with GOBIS.

MCEDC hosts monthly meetings with the Greater Madera County Industrial Association and remain very active in the Central Valley Economic Development Corporation, a six county initiative to market the Central Valley. Additionally, we are involved with the California Association for Local Economic Development to further strengthen our network and resources. Finally, our budget request. The City Of Madera covers our basic service level budget at 40.86%. The county covers 50.76%, while Chowchilla covers 8.38%, all based proportionally on population.

The difference between the twenty twenty five, twenty six budget and the twenty twenty six, twenty seven budget is a decrease of $346.29, which equates to $194,268.22. This budget supports increases in operational expenses, including salary adjustments and health care insurance, ensuring that MCDC can continue to provide high quality services to the region. In total, our budget request for fiscal year twenty six twenty seven from all local government agencies in the JPA would equate to $475,448.40. Thank you for your time, and I'm happy to answer questions.

Thank you for that report. I bring it back to my colleagues for any questions or concerns. Council member Rodriguez.

Yes. Thank you, mayor Gagels, and thank you, Christina. I know you've done a great job since you got the position here. I know you hit the floor running, and I appreciate your engagement in all these organizations that certainly bring highlight to our community. Now I wanted to ask you a question because I've seen this over the last years how you talked about retail vacancies and what have you, the increase. What has been the shift in seeing that? It I mean, I I think COVID has also done some some some work there, but, in in your opinion, what what has what have we seen over the last couple of years to to see this, this shift or or this rise in vacancies?

I think generally, it's hard to do business in the state of California and Madera County and the city of Madera. We're we're not immune to that. So, I mean, generally, California sometimes makes it hard, but that's why we're here to market as best as we can. And, yeah, that's, I mean, that's essentially the biggest issue that I've seen.

Thank you. Now the the other question that I have is, you know, privately in in the business that I operate, this remote setting has really set a trend and a shift in the way people operate. So I don't know in commercial space, but downsizing, restructuring. And for us, I mean, we just had to give up our lease because we just couldn't really see how we could keep such a big office for the for the work that we do today. And that work is no longer meeting with people, but rather telecommunicating or going through Zoom or audio.

Do you see that happening? I see you guys are an office of three. Is that something that's changing in in this in this just shift of how things are are moving along?

I think things have changed since COVID. Absolutely. I think things are going back. I think people want more social interaction, but we have to remain flexible and understanding. Know, we have to understand that women have childcare needs, and that we sometimes have to be more accommodating than we used to be.

So sometimes it can't be eight to five, and we just have to be a little bit more flexible when it comes to these things, and I think COVID has really showed some light to that. But at the same time, I think people are starting to go back into the office. I think you saw the governor changed his his rules about every mostly everyone has to go back to the to the office now, and I think people are following suit. That's yeah.

Yeah. And don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of it because I think the way just technology is, it's advancing the way we do business. So I I don't think the private sector is immune, but I don't think government is either. So something that I may be questioning later on is space. You know? Can we consolidate? Can we do something where we can share space? Because now our work isn't really about providing or having to see people directly, but rather, you know, the type of work that we do through remote access. So it's not just the agency in itself.

It'll be all agencies that I that I govern over a board. Right? I'm gonna be asking a question of the city. That was probably something that'll bring up in the future agenda and all other boards that I sit on because I see this shift in how remote telecommuting has really shifted the way we do business. So, anyways, thank you again. Appreciate everything you've done. I know you've been for a short stint, but I appreciate all your hard work.

Thank you.

Thank you, council member Rodriguez. I have a question, director Gallagher. I I commend your membership and affiliation contacts, but a question I have is, my colleagues and myself meet with our, city manager once a month, just standing means on things that are happening. So I I've approached him on a couple of questions, and I'm not sure when you meet with him because he wasn't clear on some of the things that I had. And, do you have standing meetings with our city manager every quarter, or when do you meet with him?

So we actually don't have a standing meeting, but I've offered you know, I'm I'm open to meetings at any time, not even quarterly, but monthly. I am so flexible with that. So I I welcome I think we have regular communication. I mean, if there's an issue, you know, I I text him, I call him. But I am welcome for more structured meetings, and more structured meetings with you. I'm I'm happy to meet anytime. We have, you know, a monthly meeting with the executive committee, which Council Member Mahia is on. But yeah, I welcome a more structured approach to a meeting with

I think that would just be something that we would want to entertain so that we have open communication. And you are discussing with our city managers some of the things that we can maybe bring into the city. He's very knowledgeable, and he looks towards the future and to what we have inventory wise or what we have land wise and what we could really do. And I know because you do go out there and really represent the county in Churchill and us, and I feel if you had these standing meetings, there would be more open dialogue to say that when you do have investors looking at certain things, you know our inventory. You kinda know more where we're at and what we're looking at in the city.

So, I'm just asking maybe if that's something that we can entertain. Absolutely. Absolutely. At this time, I open up for public comment.

Oh, I had a comment, mayor. Sorry. Councilwoman Mihilla. Thank you, mayor. It's just been a real pleasure to be able to represent City of Madera on the MCDC board, and I've just learned a lot. I really appreciate your diligence and your responsiveness, not not only yourself, but the staff and also the city. And I think that that would be good, moving forward, but thank you. And then I know that the first or the latest applicant is from the city of Madera for the loan revolving program, so all of your efforts are appreciated in supporting our small businesses here at Madera. Thank you.

Thank you for that comment. Councilmember Rodriguez.

I did have one last question, Christina. And I know this may be preliminary, but in the, the latest news with one of our big manufacturers that are have announced mass layoffs and what have you. Do we have any preliminary reports of what kind of economic, impact we'll have for our county and or city?

Sure. Sure. Yeah. So both JBT and Mission Bell Winery are, set to close. We recently, as of today, received a warn notice, from from the winery, and I think, the warn notice mentioned 212 jobs, people being affected.

And I am working with the Madera County workforce in any way, shape, form that I can. We are very active. I've already had multiple companies reach out to me asking, can, you know, let's try to pull and help some people, know, let's try to help our community, so that's another way that I'm helping out. But we have reached out to both GBT and the winery, to really find out what their future plans are. And maybe are they selling?

Are they trying to salvage any piece of the property or of the company? At this point, they're they're not welcoming a meeting. They're just not ready. They they have their own procedural, procedures that they have to take before setting up a meeting with with the city, with me, with the county. So, yes, I have a lot of questions, but right now, I think we're just kinda waiting to see what will happen. But I do know that I've been working with, like, real estate brokers to see what what potentially could come in if if they're willing to share any information with when they are officially gonna be leaving.

I think that as numbers come in, I think that impact us all. Be great for us to have that again through our city manager. But, yeah, thank you for the efforts because being proactive, maybe we can salvage some of those jobs through maybe another company that may wanna, you know, get into that that building and or company. Thank you.

Yeah. Of course. With that, I'll open up to public comment in the chamber. I see none. How about online on Zoom, city clerk Gonzales? Mayor. Thank you. I close public comment and entertain a motion.

Motion to approve as written.

Second. Thank

you. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. EDC Director Gallagher for being here tonight, Ann Lois. Next item.

Select Gene Recipient for February Proclamation. Good evening, mayor and council. This evening, I bring before you selecting recipient for February proclamation. For some background, council adopted a policy in August 2023. And on the in December, council approved the twenty twenty six list of annual proclamations.

Council also discussed and approved certain proclamations would be labeled as recipient at the discretion of council. Tonight's recommendation per council's direction is staff is requesting that council select a recipient for the proclamation recognizing Black History Month in February. Here's a copy of our annual proclamation list highlighting February, and I will now turn it back over to counsel.

Thank you, city clerk Gonzales. I'll take it to my colleagues if they have any nominations for who could accept this proclamation. Council member Evans.

Yes. I knew this was happening. You can't you can you hear me now? Mhmm. Alright. So this year is the centennial year for black history. So Carter G. Whoopson in 1926 established Black History Week. And from there till now, we have gone from Black History Week to now Black History Month. So this year I would like to nominate the Mitchell sisters.

They have worked in the city of Madera through the Madera Unified School District for forty plus years. So it would be Celeste, excuse me. Let me how to repeat. Seleta, and she's Mitchell, Alice Mitchell, and Geraldine Mitchell. Gerald worked at James Adams, and, also, Celeste worked for James Monroe. And Alice worked out, past Eastern Arcola, whatever the school is out that district. No. It's not Lavina. It's Riverton. I think it's Riverton.

Okay. But, anyway, they're also going to be honored for Black History Month. So I would like to ask if they could also be the proclamation receivers for the city of Madera and also to have the proclamation presented here on the eighteenth. But also, I would like to see if we could have the proclamation for the February 15 to be able to be presented at the Black History celebration, as well. So that's my nomination.

Okay. With that, I have any other nominations? I'll open it up for public comment in the chamber. Anyone online or on Zoom? We have none, mayor. Thank you for that. So just to make it official, can I get a motion for this nomination?

I'll move to approve that we have a proclamation for February 15, for the Black History Month celebration, and, again, having that here also for the recipients of the Mitchell sisters.

Second.

Thank you for that motion and second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Those opposed, motion passes unanimously. Thank you, councilwoman Evans, for that.

Very much each and everyone.

Moving on to the next item.

Under council member reports, announcements, future agenda items, this portion of the meeting is reserved for the mayor and council members to make brief reports on boards, committees, and other public agencies and at public events to request updates to initiate future agenda items and to take action on matters initiated under this section of the agenda. Under this section, the council may take action only on items specifically agendized and which meet other requirements for action.

Thank you for that. I will start with my left, councilwoman Mejia.

Thank you, mayor. I would like to hear an update on or a report about what our plan is as a city to support businesses downtown with the upcoming construction that's gonna take place on Yosemite, and support as far as the impact of traffic and just the construction that's gonna be happening. And and downtown's already vulnerable area, so I would like to request for support on that. And that's my report.

Thank you for that. Council member Rodriguez.

Yes. Thank you, mayor Gallegos. I would like to get an update on Town And Country, the the trail. I know that there's a semi completed trail. I just wanted to know when that was scheduled to to finish if we're gonna have some type of a ceremonial to to showcase that we've now completed the trail.

If that can be an update, don't know. City manager or parts director can get that for me. As mentioned earlier, I I did just have that question regarding space, right, when we do remote. How is the city approaching that as we shift to a more remote setting? You know, it it's not something that I'm asking to bring back to the day, but maybe in the future, this council would desire to see where we're at.

I mean, again, future item, not necessarily something that's pressing, but just to see what we're doing with our space. Are are are employees better suited to be remotely? And if they are, I mean, I'm always for that. I mean, times are changing, and I think sometimes that may be a shift that we may need to do at some point. And then I just wanted to thank, and congratulate our planning manager, David, and also our public works director, Harpiar. I hope I pronounced that correctly. And the gentleman that's sitting out there, thank you again for bringing up those comments. You are the only public guy here, and I appreciate you staying for the whole meeting. So I really appreciate that. And with that, I just wanna thank all of you for all your hard work.

And, again, just have a good evening. Thank you. That's all I have, mayor.

Thank you, councilmember Rodriguez. Councilmember Villegas.

Thank you, mayor C. Villegas. I just wanted to bring it out, the construction of the public park to start, taking shape. So pretty soon, we have the the park done. I hope so before the end of the year. That's that should be my report.

Thank you for that. Council member Montez.

Everybody's asking for updates. I want an update on something too. Oh, I'm just kidding. No. Welcome aboard.

This is David, and I've been pronouncing that. Har Arpere?

Okay. Welcome aboard. Next time, I

think we should, have him do a speech or something.

It's, you know, get him a little more involved. I'm sure they'll

I'm just kidding. I would say

no. But welcome aboard. Nothing else to report.

Thank you. Mayor pro Tim Zakaria.

A small item just to because it's around the corner, and it's a big year for America. It's the July 4 to see if we can discuss it. There's some items that I'd like to bring, and I think we need to just have put on the agent to discuss. So we could have that.

So you want staff the report to bring the report?

Yeah.

Okay.

+1 23456. Got it. Perfect. Thank you for that. Councilwoman Evans.

Yes. Let me just start. First and foremost, we went to League of Cities, which was very enlightening. A lot of good networking that we had there, nice classes, things that we did learn, things that we need to start trying to do, but we'll talk about that on another. Also, I want to recognize Lucille Murphy.

She passed away on January 21, and she was 106 years old. So, I attended her service on this past Saturday and it was a packed house. So, I was just very moved because we did honor her in 2021 for Black History. Also, we are having our Black History Month celebration, everyone. And I would love to just ring the bell of the parks department and the maintenance department.

I went out to Pan Am Park today and it is looking so spiffy, if that's a good word to say. City manager, Arnoldo, I ring my bell for you as well. But if you haven't been out there, you need to go out and take a look. It's it was not very nice but I'm telling you, they were putting the black bark down and inside everything. It's just, it looks very, very nice.

So, I'm very pleased with that as well. All invitations are open for Sunday, February 15 to each and every one of you. I would just love to have all of you there. It's it's going to be something special and we will be celebrating this centennial year. So, please take the time and come out.

We also Council Member Rodriguez and I went to the MLK celebration and we both collectively presented the proclamation at that point in time. Council member, Rodriguez is also Black Saints United, so he will be there. So you need to come and see him as he performs that afternoon.

Just teasing.

But he does have some

he does have a role to play. And at that time, we will be, honoring the Mitchell sisters as well along with enough, enough another young lady from Thomas Jefferson. She's 12 years old. Her name is Safari Williams. She's going to be doing original poem. But I just want you guys to just come out and to just enjoy. As I said, black history started when we were born. If you go back that far.

Councilwoman Evans, what's the time for that on February 15? It's at 03:00. And the location?

Pan Am. Yes. So, for us to have gone from then till now, we speak of immigrants and Christ was an immigrant. So, I'm just asking for those that are interested to come out and to see the immigrants which are the black people, the brown people, and all people of color to just come out and to participate and to just enjoy. But I wanna say thank you. I'd like to see you there, and that's all for me.

Thank you. Thank you for your comment. And for me, really quick, this community lost a gentleman that was a champion for water, and water is so important in our city and our county. Mark Nacata passed away on Monday, so our prayers go out to the family for that. A shout out to Madera Police for their new position hires.

We also had the life saving officers that were there for two major events that happened in our city. So we appreciate all of our officers and staff that were there unsworn staff that were part of this life savings. One thing I'd like to ask my colleagues to entertain our staff to look into to look into bringing back a business color palette that we would require businesses in our cities to paint their buildings a certain color, and our staff would come to us with palettes. I would, hope that we our staff could also look at entertaining, an incentive to help the buildings that are already painted that are not on the color color palette, And we would have to come up with some creative ideas on how to fund that, maybe cannabis money, maybe try to look for a grant. But just, look into this so that we can now put this in an ordinance so that we are on the same page with buildings that are being vacated now or if they leave them or they are coming into them that we are seeing on the same palette, and this makes our city look clean and better.

Mhmm. So that's what I'm trying to entertain that in the city of Madera. So

That's gonna be on Yosemite. Right?

It'd be the whole city. Any anyone in the city. That's that's great. Yes. That's a good I'm sure you've heard from the community. We've had a lot of comments even on social media that this is something that our city needs.

So

Definitely. So So yeah.

Six. Six. Okay. And with that, I would just thank everybody for spending their evening with us and congratulate our new employees for chick picking Madera to be here for us. Thank you. We have no closed session. So, I will see you on Wednesday, 02/18/2026. I adjourn this meeting at 08:21. Thank you, everyone.