City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the regular meeting of the Madera City Council, Wednesday, July 1st, 2026, at 6 p.m. City Clerk Gonzalez.

The City Council meetings are open to the public. The meetings may also be viewed and accessed remotely at www.zoom.us forward slash WC878. eight five zero zero five nine four zero forward slash join members of the public may provide comments on the agenda items in person through zoom or by phone at six six nine nine hundred six eight three three using meeting id eight seven eight eight five zero zero five nine four zero followed by the pound key or by email at city council public comment at madera.gov to comment by phone press star nine to raise your hand and star six to a mute when called upon written comments may And comments may also be submitted by mail to 205 West 4th street, California, 93637. a recording of the meeting will be posted on the city's YouTube channel. As soon as practical practical following the conclusion of the meeting, we'd also like to remind the audience that wordly is available for translation.

Perfect Thank you. Roll call please.

Mayor guy goes here. Mayor pro, Tim Zachariah council member Rodriguez. Council Member Montez. Here. Council Member Evans. Here. Council Member Mejia.

Here.

Council Member Villegas.

Here. Thank you for that. Moving on to invocation by Pastor Josh Blair for Central Valley Christian Church and remain standing for our Boy Scout Troop 116 that will be giving us our Pledge of Allegiance tonight.

Let's bow our heads and pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather here in this place, in this City Council, Lord. And it's an honor and privilege to pray your blessing over our city and this council, over our mayor, our council members, and over our city as a whole, Lord. We pray for your wisdom, direction. Give us insight, Lord. As the heart of California, I pray, God, that if you have our heart, God, you have the heart of our state. And life flows from the heart. So we pray your blessing over our city, over its residents, Lord, and that you would guide us and direct us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Troop 116, do you want to come over to the podium and line up right here?

Come on down. Come on, come on, come on, come on.

There you go. There you go.

Okay.

Troop salute. May the audience please join me in pledge of allegiance.

Thank you for that troop 116 and celebrating our 250 year anniversary moving on to the approval of the agenda. Do my colleagues have any concerns or changes? I see none at this time open it for public comment in the chamber. Anyone online or on Zoom?

We have none, Mayor.

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

I'll move to adopt the agenda as presented. Second. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. No presentation and moving on to public comment. City Clerk.

The first 15 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 speaker 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 for that. I will open up to the chamber. I know we have Boy Scout Troop 116. Come on up to the podium.

Good afternoon.

I'm Michael Stone from Troop 116 with BSA. As you've probably noticed by now, there may be a patch on your desk, just like the one on my shirt.

Beautiful.

uh this year our nation uh commemorates america's 250th birthday scouts nation right are wearing this official american patch to honor its historical milestone tonight 2.16 probably represent presents these official patches to the mayor and council members as a symbol of our gratitude to them thank you for your time and commitment to our people thank you beautiful thank you for that

and your comment. Anyone else in the chamber? City Clerk Gonzalez, anyone online or on Zoom?

We have none, Mayor.

Thank you for that. I will close public comment at this time. And we will be moving on to the next item.

Item A1, consideration of an ordinance updating the Madeira Municipal Code regarding allowable chicken livestock.

Thank you. Presented by our very own Chief Charamani. Good evening.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of council, Gino Ciaramani with the Mayor Police Department. Thank you to Troop 118. That was a great job with the flag salute. I'm typically here discussing crimes against persons or involvement in gangs, but today we're going to be talking about livestock and chickens, specifically roosters. Tonight, I'm going to be presenting an ordinance amending the city's municipal code relating to livestock. A little bit of background. For years, we've been experiencing continuous, noticeable increase of calls for service related to noisy roosters in residential areas. The current text references chickens, but it does not include specific language regarding male chickens, and that's typically where the problems exist. This regulatory gap allows the keeping of roosters, which is a result of persistent neighborhood noise complaints, which results in, sorry about that, The ongoing crowing impacts the quality of life, leading to regular and avoidable neighborly disputes. From a public nuisance perspective, they generate frequent noise, roosters do. Their complaints are often unpredictable, sharp, or persistent. Crowing is the problem, and it happens throughout the daytime and early morning hours. A lot of times people only see the crowing or believe crowing occurs from a rooster in the early morning hours, but they can be doing it throughout the day. the activities consistent and the public nuisance disrupts the peace health and general welfare of the residential neighborhoods some of our enforcement challenges current code permits chickens we lack a definitive clear-cut tool to address rooster specific issues directly as a result resolving these complaints currently requires navigating lengthy and subjective public nuisance determination process which places a heavy burden on municipal staff resources and often that municipal staff resource is dealing with customer service related to it trying to work through neighborly issues but oftentimes it's a dispute over the crowing of a rooster. The current amendment of section 5-1.31 of the municipal code explicitly specify allowable chickens or hens and pullets only. That's what the change is gonna be made. This provides staff with a straightforward, clear cut regulatory standard to resolve neighborhood disputes rapidly. The change is expected to optimize the allocation of our city staff hours, freeing up valuable staff resources for higher priority calls. We do want to preserve the backyard livestock balance. We understand that people do love chickens and want to have fresh eggs. The proposed amendment is targeted specifically at roosters to mitigate the noise that they have while preserving standard backyard poultry keeping practices. We are still preserving the quantity limits consistent with our existing municipal code framework. Residents are still permitted to keep up to three small livestock animals. These can include hens, pullets, rabbits, other types of small livestock per residence. And there's also a exemption for agriculture. Will subsection B properties actively zoned or utilized for agriculture or industrial purposes remain completely exempt from these restrictions? My recommendation is to waive further reading and introduce an ordinance amending the city's municipal code relating to livestock by title only. And I'm here to answer any questions.

Thank you for that. Bringing it back to my colleagues, Council Member Evans.

So in my area, in my district, it's correct. Early morning, I'm an early riser, but they get up earlier than me. So the cock-a-doodle-doo, that's the chickens, right?

That's the sound a rooster typically makes now a hen can make noises also, but the main consistent problem is typically surrounding roosters. That's the male portion. That's the, I guess I can agree with that's the cock a doodle do.

Yeah, that's it. Okay. So we have, we have quite a few in my, in my district. Also, the livestock now. I was coming home and this big fat. Pig was walking down the street. So now are we supposed to have actual pigs in the city limits as well?

Pigs are allowable under the livestock ordinance. They are allowed three, but they must be in pens.

In the city right here?

In the city.

Really?

Yes.

Okay. Well, then you answered my question because I was ready to call you up. But okay. Very good.

Thank you. Moving on to Mayor Pro Tem Zachariah.

Chief, just for clarification with the three, is it three of each type of animal for a total of nine or one of like a combination totaling three?

Three total of any livestock. Three total. So not individualized. It's total amount. One chicken, one...

Correct. Okay. And then the other thing as far as sales, because like, for instance, some of the retailers sell male...

Chickens or potentially male chickens that doesn't affect any any ordinance related to the sale of them It wouldn't affect the sale because many times you don't know in the beginning until typically around Sometimes you can see it from 8 to 12 weeks a lot of times they say 16 weeks is a true definitive timeline where the hens and roosters are prominent and so to answer your question, they still can sell them within city limits. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Council Member Montes.

I just want to say thank you, Chief, for bringing this forth. And I used to do enforcement when I actually worked for the city. And I would have put money that we did have a rooster prohibition. So this just makes it easier to do enforcement. And I do have chickens, right, in my backyard. They're getting more popular, right? And maybe when I enforced, they weren't as popular. They were kind of like on the outskirts of town, so you didn't have as many problems. But I do appreciate, and then, you know, all the animals do, even if they're pigs, they have to be in a sanitary enclosure. So you can have them, but if they start producing a nuisance, we would be able to enforce on them.

Correct, sir.

Okay. And then so this just makes it a little bit easier. for the noise um so I do I do appreciate that I'll make sure that I'm mindful of my chicken start crawling I can't cook them right it can't be slaughtered in city limits I'll rehome them um but no I do appreciate uh our staff's time and work on this and hopefully this goes forward and it's easier for us to do some enforcement thank you Councilman all right Councilmember Mejia

I'm just curious on the, when the increasing calls were mentioned, like how much time or I guess calls in comparison to other nuisances for ESA. So it's increasing in the number of calls or?

So I don't have specific data for you, but the requests that are coming in or problematic calls specific to rooster noise is definitely far above any other animal we have. Now we have animal control issues regarding loose dogs, feral cats, those types of things, but it's neighborly disputes regarding roosters and the noise that they permit.

Oh, okay. But so is there any kind of like estimate as far as like, in comparison to like, how just any estimate?

No, I don't have that for you. Okay.

And then so this is proposing to completely ban roosters and this would be a ban.

Yes.

Yeah. Just my, my concern is that with well, you wouldn't necessarily need the rooster to lay eggs for the chickens, but. For people that are interested in growing their own food, like from home, having at least one rooster would be necessary to have chicks. So I think for that, nobody would be allowed to have a rooster at all.

Correct.

Okay. um so yeah just i think that that's something that should be considered um as far as like in my district as well there's a lot of people that do like to raise their own food they like to raise their their chickens their their um chicks and and i think that um that takes away from their freedom to be able to do that it's not necessarily um trying to have like a full operation but um people that just want to have that ability to, in addition to cultivate their own plants and grow their food, it would restrict them from that. It would take away their liberty from doing that. So that is my concern, again, coming from my district. I do see a lot of people that have that. And I do understand that the neighborly disputes, but I think that it's just a little unfair to, or not a little, it is unfair to take away from the people that are doing it for a good reason for their family. BECAUSE OF JUST EVERYBODY ELSE THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE THE SITUATION OUT OF CONTROL. SO JUST I WOULD PROPOSE ALLOWING AT LEAST ONE TO BE ABLE TO CONTINUE THAT TYPE OF I DON'T EVEN KNOW THE WORD FOR IT ANYMORE BUT JUST HAVING THAT FREEDOM BASICALLY TO GROW YOUR FOOD.

THANK YOU. COUNCIL MEMBER MONTEZ.

Oh, I just kind of want to maybe retort a little bit on that. So this doesn't change anything. You still only have three animals, right? So it's not like you can have a production for chickens, right? Because that's why I have my chickens, right? Because, you know, well, eggs are still what, you know, $700 a dozen or something like that. I haven't bought eggs in a long time, so I don't know. I hear that it's pretty expensive. Uh, and then through COVID I've had them. And so that was a little bit easier for me. So I understand, uh, the rationale. Uh, the, the other thing is you can get them commercially. I think I want to say the minimum amount of chicks that you can buy is like six from like tractor supply. They won't sell you two or three. Um, but sometimes they're not sexed, right? So you don't know what you're getting until they start growing and then you could end up with a batch of, uh, six roosters. So I just don't, I don't think that it's prohibitively expensive. go get you know if you want to continue and it happens right I have had raccoons possums in my yard and they love chickens too right and so and I'm Fox as well so I'd lose them from time to time and then I have to go buy some more but again I think it's I want to say it's five bucks for six chicks right so you do have to grow them But it's not super expensive to replenish your stock. And then I'd have to get the six. I wait to see which ones are hens and roosters. And then I rehome the roosters to somebody in the county. Right. Because my parents do live in the county. So I don't know what they do with them. I don't know if over there they can eat them. None of my business after I've rehomed them. So that would just be the only retort on that. You can't have. it's not a commercial operation you can't do that in the city limits right as a commercial operation to have multiple uh chickens especially to slaughter them you're not you're not allowed so just specifically for eggs right correct so that would just be my

All right. Councilwoman Mejia. So I'm not the expert. I'll just that's my first disclaimer. But I just think that that so that again drives even though I'm not the expert, I have learned from my neighbors, from my family that, you know, they they do this and it's I know that there's There's concerns about the way that just buying because of the way that they're fed and just trying to stay as organic as possible. So then that would again drive people to have to go to the store and buy that way when people do want to be able to raise their own. chickens, chicks, roosters, and so that's one retort, I guess, to that. But yeah, just I would be in favor of allowing one at least, or allowing the community to have some type of input into that, just because trying not to restrict everybody's freedom because of certain disputes,

Those are my comments. Thank you for that. At this time, I open it for public comment. Anyone in the chamber? City Clerk, anyone online or on Zoom?

We have none, Mayor.

All right. I bring it back to my colleagues. Council Member Rodriguez.

Thank you, Mayor. And I, too, will agree that the livestock, I, too, have chickens. I'm not ashamed of that. Actually, I do them for the eggs. But I will tell you that the one thing people don't know about chickens is that they'll always lay eggs. They're infertile eggs. So they'll always have a they'll replenish their egg stock almost daily, at least 200 and some days a year. So people think they need a rooster. You don't need a rooster. The rooster is a nuisance and could be a nuisance. I understand, especially if you have neighbors, because my chickens can get a little loud. but that's because they're laying their egg right but after that they're quiet throughout the rest of the day now um as far as the rooster goes I I do think that that could be a little bit above depending on the neighborhoods again I I do um um agree with um Councilwoman Mejia I think she has a concern about the the area that she uh oversees but again in areas like my area I think that would be a nuisance and people would certainly complain so Uh, I'm gonna stick with what we have and I'll move to approve, um, the item that we have before us.

Thank you for that. I have a motion 2nd time and a 2nd, uh, can I have our city attorney?

Thank you for the reading Thank You mayor the motion is to waive the first reading news introduced by title only in order to the City Council of the City of Madera meaning subsection a of section 5 dash 1.3 1 a chapter 1 of title 5 of the Madera Municipal Code regarding a lot about allowable chicken livestock and determine the project uses in pursuant to section 15061 b3 of the California Environmental Quality Act sequel guidelines Thank you.

Thank you have a motion in a second, but I do have another comment from councilmember Vegas Vegas

Oh, yeah, I think I'm here, uh, so this, uh, this rule for, uh, the limit of 3. 3 animals, it's only in the city, right? I have nothing to do with the county, right? Correct. Oh, okay. That was my question because some people sometimes they say, well, why are you guys in the city? And I can tell it this is only for the city. So if you live in the county, have nothing to do with the city, right? So I explain to people sometimes. So I got to make sure what I'm going to say when somebody approached and tell me why we did this in the city council. That was my concern.

Thank you for your comment. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Okay, we have six eyes and one name motion passes with that count. Thank you for that chief for your report. If my colleagues could entertain on one thing before we move on to the consent calendar. We do have boy scout shoot here 116 and there are leaders are going to be our leaders before we know it. So, before they leave, I don't know if they're going to stay for the whole council meeting, but I would, if my colleagues would entertain a picture, which group 166 to come up to take with our council. We'd appreciate that come on up.

Do they have chickens?

I might not show all in my clothes.

Are you ready?

Can you guys turn a little bit? On your shoulders. Yeah. We might have to do two rows.

Yeah.

Okay.

Come on, the little way. Come in the front. Get in between. This way. It's over here, guys.

We've got space over here.

Mayor Pritchett, do you want to come on this side?

All right.

Wait.

Ready? Everyone over here, please. On three. One, two, three. One more. Peace.

Thank you, troop leaders, for what you do.

And moms and dads, thank you for having them here today.

We appreciate it.

Thank you to my colleagues for entertaining that. I know for them that means a lot to have a picture with this elected officials here. Moving on to consent calendar, we do have an announcement from our city clerk first.

Yes, for item B5 that in the title it says the We included mayor as part of the election for this year. It is not the mayor. It's only council districts one, three and five. The rest of the report and its attachments are correct. Simply the title.

All right.

And under consent calendar matters listed under 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 and it will be considered separately.

Thank you for that. I bring it to my colleagues for any questions or concerns. I see none. I bring it to the Chamber. Anyone online or on Zoom? Okay. With that, I will close public comment and bring it to my colleagues for a motion and a second.

Motion to approve is written.

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

Thank you. Presented by our senior engineer, Benancourt. Welcome. Thank you.

evening mayor mayor pro tem and city council my name is steve bettencourt i'm senior civil engineer with the engineering department i'm here to make a presentation on the contract award for the schnorr avenue sidewalk construction as city project r58 cmax cml 5157-123 the background of this project is the project is funded by the congested mitigation and air quality cmax local transportation funds, and the regional state surface transportation program, RSTP, exchange funds. The plans and specifications were prepared by the city's consultants with the bid package prepared by city staff. The project includes constructing new sidewalks on both sides of Schnoor Avenue between Sunset Avenue and University Avenues, which is near the Fresno River. The work in general consists of clearing, grubbing, and earthwork, new construction, new sidewalks, drive approaches, access ramps, and alterations to existing front yards. Staff held a public information meeting on June 22nd at a nearby church so that all property owners remain aware of the upcoming project.

Here's a quick map of it.

there's existing sidewalk from the river up to university so this takes it from university down to sunset bid review june 9 2026 12 bids were received the bids were checked for accuracy against bidding requirements validity of licenses and bid security the lowest bid was from spectrum engineering which withdrew their bid due to an administrative error in the bid schedule Their request was timely submitted, established that the material mistake was made. The mistake was made in filling out the bid and not due to error in judgment or to carelessness in inspecting the site of work or in reading the plans and specifications. Staff determined the contractor's request for relief met the requirements of public contract code section 5103 and approved the withdrawal of the bid. The second lowest bid was from Bedillo Construction and engineering upon review of their bid, it was found that they failed to submit the following items. Number one, the California air resources board forum, and number two, a letter confirming that they were performing 30% or more of the net contract. These are, these items are required by the bid instructions are material material to the bid and are not in consequential. is recommended that the City Council reject the bid by Padilla Construction and Engineering Incorporated as non-responsive. The third lowest bid was from Pacific Coast Construction and Land Company, who's bid and bent all the bidder documentation requirements and was selected as the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. These next two slides are just a list of the bids.

We're getting a lot of bids on all our projects.

It's not just two or three. We're getting a lot. You might notice that we were under the engineer's opinion of cost. Contract award recommendation. Pacific Coast Construction and Land Company submitted the lowest bid of $445,731.80. They met all the bidder documentation requirements and was selected as the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. We're requesting the approval of the allowance of 10% of the contract amount. for contingencies resulting from unforeseen conditions. Environmental assessment. A preliminary environmental assessment was performed which determined the project would be categorically exempt pursuant to the CEQA guidelines section 15301-C, existing facilities as a roadway alterations do not create additional automobile lanes which result in negligible expansion capacity. The recommendation we have before council is to adopt a resolution approving the contract award of $445,731.80 plus contingencies to Pacific Coast Construction and Land Company and adopt a CEQA Class 1 existing facilities categorical exemption for the project. That concludes my presentation. Is there any questions?

Thank you for that. I'll bring it back to my colleagues. Questions or comments? I see none. I'll open it up for public comment in the chamber. I see none. Anyone online or on Zoom?

We have none, Mayor.

Thank you. I will close public comment at this time and bring it back to my colleagues for a motion and a second. Motion to approve as written. Second. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for that report. Senior Engineer Betancourt being here tonight.

Thank you next item under administrative reports E, 1 community development block grant program applications notification process.

All right presented by our grants administrator.

Good evening mayor city council. My name is Marcel presenting on item E, 1 community development block grant program application notification process. bit of a summary for this item during the last council meeting on june 17th 2026 council expressed an interest in learning and discussing the notification process for cdbg awards currently the city notifies potential stakeholders at the beginning of the annual award process we do this through email posting the madera tribune posting on the city's website and social platforms and we also notify city council and the block grant commission To some background, which will probably sound a little familiar to you is the city is an entitlement agency and as a result, we must submit a consolidated plan to HUD. We submit this plan every 5 years. Consequently, we submit an annual action plan to remain eligible for funding statutory regulations require the city to adopt a citizen participation plan. By statute, the due date for the city's plans is August 16th. However, the city has historically kept an internal deadline of May 16th. We use this deadline for planning the submission for planning the application process. So, the funding consists of 3 funding categories, administration, public service and public improvements had does have some funding maximums in these in 2 of the funding categories. So, as a reminder, we can only fund 20% of the annual allocation toward administration, 15% toward public services, and the remaining funds can be used to put for public improvements. While the city has historically funded, um, or allocated funds by these maximums, public improvements may be funded at 100%. Most of the applications that he receives for funding are for the public service allocation. So, notification staff uses a stakeholder distribution list that includes local agencies and previously awarded agencies. Staff provides an email notification to Council and the Block Grant Commission. This list is updated as inquiries from interested agencies reach out to staff. Again, we also follow certain methods to notify interested parties, including the City's social media platforms, the Madera Tribune, and the City's website. Potential improvements the staff is bringing forward this evening include notifying nonprofits of the CDBG award process. The city requires nonprofits doing business with the Madera to file for a business license annually. Again, notifications can be sent to these nonprofits. The application timeframe. The CDBG application period is typically open for 30 to 45 days. The policy could be modified to extend this application period. POSSIBLE RESULTS OF THESE CHANGES, THEY MAY INCREASE PUBLIC INPUT AND, CONSEQUENTLY, THE NUMBER OF CDBG SUBMITTED APPLICATIONS. AS A NOTE TO CONSIDER, THERE HAVE HISTORICALLY BEEN SIGNIFICANTLY MORE PUBLIC SERVICE FUNDING REQUESTS THAN THERE IS FUNDING. AND THAT CONCLUDES MY PRESENTATION THIS EVENING. I'M HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS OR RECEIVE COUNCIL GUIDANCE. ALL RIGHT. MAYOR PROCHIN, ZACHARIA.

I guess the concern and why I was asking is, for instance, one of the groups, which is like the Holy Family Table, they wouldn't necessarily qualify because they're not a business, but they are a nonprofit entity that serves the poor. And I guess their question was when talking with them is, first, they didn't know anything about it. And then they are unclear is how would they qualify what they could use the funds for? Because even myself trying to kind of search on the site that we had for the city, it's very unclear, like, what qualifications or what you would have to apply that money to to be approved. So that that's kind of why I was looking for clarification.

So they are a nonprofit, correct?

Yes.

Yeah. And so they can, um, they would be eligible to apply under the public service funding category because they're providing a service to the, they're providing the food, um, to the individuals on the, in the city limits.

Sure. But, I mean, as far as what the money goes towards in the grant process, when they submit. What restrictions do they have or what groups, the restrictions the groups usually have? Can it depend on anything or are they very specific?

They can, the project supplies are eligible so long as they are required to deliver the public service itself. So for food in many cases can be ineligible for federal funding. If the purpose for purchasing the food is for service delivery, it's eligible. it could be used for staff time i don't know you know whatever personnel costs may be incurred for the holy family table it could be used for to cover you know utilities rent those types of overhead costs equipment and stuff like that like a new they can't purchase equipment with cdbg funds um if they're renting it there's some caveats there but they can't purchase it

And again, and really not to get it here, but how do they understand that? Where on the site can somebody really get more clarification?

Honestly, what I've done in the past with people who have very specific questions related to their public service is they just reach out to us, and I have one-on-ones with them. And then we're able to just kind of, because generally what we give is just that general information, because there are a lot of nuances in CDBG. So it's just easier when people have very specific project, then we can get into the leads with those details and kind of help them figure out what's eligible and what wouldn't be eligible.

Okay. And then to understand, as far as the dates, when do you guys do the actual publication? I was kind of confused by that. When do you start seeing publication of any kind?

about the process so we will normally it's posted in the newspaper um at the very latest the first weekend that we open so if we open back on a Monday it would be that Saturday or something you know and generally it's um we've done it as early as late October though more recently has been November December like late November or mid-November it's a very early December and we'll close in January okay thank you thank you for your comments uh grants administrative zuniga

Is there a criteria with the application when they do pick it up that basically can answer a lot of these questions too?

We do have, we have some Q and A's that we've been trying to add to each year. And then we do have a, um, a description of the CDBG program that's attached to it's an actual, it's an attachment. So when they go on, on to apply, they can, if they click on those, they'll get more information about the CDBG program. We, um, it's straight from regulations. We try to tailor it a little bit. So it's a little easier to read, but it basically does give examples of. Funding and and what it can be used for and, um, the, the maximums that we've mentioned here, the 1520% public improvement. So, yeah.

Thank you and, um, I don't think we've done it in a while, but when I 1st got on council, I think they stagger it like, every 3 or 5 years they did, like, a community workshop. where they invited a lot of the nonprofits just to hear a lot of this one-on-one and got and you could answer questions and it just seemed to because i i see that we have like a lot of new applicants that we didn't have 10 years ago right that really don't have that knowledge so maybe we might look at doing an open forum for those that are that are interested in the cbg cdbg funds for their non-profits yeah sure with that council member mejia um

Yeah, so on the point about the list just for new nonprofits in the area, that could be helpful. The city may not be aware that they're in the area, just having more of an outreach campaign. I think that having a community forum in a city facility that is not the city hall, like the chambers, could probably be more friendly for people that are not used to being in these settings. And I think separating, just because there's a lot of technical questions involved, maybe just focusing on English speakers and then focusing separately on Spanish speakers could probably be more, a better use of their time. And just having a virtual option for people that can't physically make it, but still have questions or suggestions that I would have.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Rodriguez.

Yes, thank you, Mayor Gallegos. uh marcella what is the primary objective of what cdbg i mean these grants that are out for the community what is hud's primary objective when we look at this because part of the cdbg committee that we have i mean they're here looking at the objectives uh especially because we're gonna have a dozen of people coming in but a lot of times they don't meet the objective of what cdbg wants and in the last couple years at least the last rounds that i've seen it's their focus on really housing and more importantly even unhoused, right? So what can you speak on that?

So that is HUD's objective. That's their main objective. And what HUD asks of us is that we hold needs assessment, which is what we do as we develop the five-year consolidated plan. And all of our action plans must support the identified needs in our consolidated plan. So our consolidated plan we just submitted last August. So we started a new five-year cycle. The local needs didn't change much where housing remained the highest identified need at the local level. And so, yes, our block grant commission, they do review the applications and they do consider which ones are supporting the highest local need, which is housing. However, The other applications that have that are eligible that come through They are eligible because they do support one of the three national objectives that that that HUD has which is to serve low and the first most common one is to serve low to moderate income families and so that is how we are able to fund some of the nonprofits such as project run or

the food bank or you know these different ones that may not necessarily have a direct support to housing but they are eligible it's just it's a it's an um it's in a tier ranking thank you and i think that's important um now when our committee comes together i'm assuming that they're given um the priorities and when we're out advocating our outreach for the community uh that are looking to participate there are also aware that you know these are some of the priorities i know there's a lot of uh economic benefit for low to moderate um um low to moderate businesses or organizations that are trying to empower the community so to speak so those are also priorities that we look forward to but those tasks are given to this committee and they understand that this is what we're looking for because year after year we do get a lot of folks that uh request certain amounts but we're giving so we only have a certain pot for local service we have some for administration and we have for capital investment in our community what would you say on average is the amount that's given to local just local services like so

The average, so the maximum generally, um, based off our, um, annual entitlement hovers around 140 to 150,000, the amount of the requests. I mean, obviously I don't have it in front of me, but that generally has, um, sits between 300, 400,000 of the actual funding requests that come in. So we many times have maybe a quarter of it to, to, to, you know, put out into the community. So, yeah, it's the pot is so little.

Correct. And the request is so high and you have to spread that amongst maybe 10 to 15. Oh, in our case, we've seen anywhere between five to eight organizations that will split that in some way to try to meet their needs. Right. And I mean, I'll tell you that five to 10,000 really doesn't go a long way for an organization that's trying to really, you know, bring that empowerment and or some economic life to it. I would wish that more of the money that's concentrated in capital investment would be shifted over. But again, that's not something that I can say here at the local level. It's something that I can advocate when I go do it through a congressional legislator or something. But I know it's tough. It's tough. We all want to try to give as much as we can to a lot of these organizations, but it's so little, so much request. Those are my comments. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Mejia.

Marcella, based on the one-on-ones that you've had in the past, are there like a set of recurring questions that you feel like are so common that they would already be available on the website for people interested? Or does the criteria change so much every year that that information couldn't already be made available?

No, the criteria doesn't really change year over year. Sometimes it's just the questions I receive are because it's just specific, again, to whatever project they are having. Can I purchase a vehicle? Can we, you know, those types of things. So that's where we get the questions. So some of it is very general, you know, what is CDBG? What's eligible? What's not, right? But then there are some, I remember, the vehicle purchaser was like a trailer purchase or something and i was like oh we can't do that so um so yeah so it's kind of it depends so we did our best to put some q a's together of kind of just those general questions but not to say we can't take another look at those and try to add to them and definitely take from any feedback from forums that we may have okay thank you thank you for your comment um i will open it up for public comment anyone in the chamber i see none online or on zoom we have none mayor

Thank you. I close public comment, and this was report only. Thank you, grants administrator Zuniga.

Moving on to the next item. Item E2, annual residential curbside cleanup summary. All right.

Going to be presented by our public's work director. Gandhi, thank you for being here tonight. Thank you.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and member of the council.

I'm Harpreet Gandhi, public works operation director.

I'm just giving a report. It's a information report on the annual residential curbside cleanup So just to give a background annual citywide program for single-family residences Those of bulky and other ways that's not accommodated through our regular solid waste services the city partners with mid-valley disposal they are our solid with disposals to conduct the annual cleanup and This year, we collected over 5 million pounds of waste, which was a 30% increase and the largest cleanup in city history. The program also saw a notable rise in illegal dumping, prohibited material, and noncompliance. This table gives us a snapshot of what we had initially with 2025 and 2026. So if you look at the tonnage for metals, we've already risen from 59.27 to 104 tons. If you look at the trash in 2025, it was 1747.49 ton. This year we have 2135.35, which is around 25% over. There was an increase in the tires. We collected around 2267 tires and 2507 mattresses. So if we go to the annual comparison, we collected 5 million pounds this year, up 1.3 million pounds, 30% over the prior years. Organic waste surged about 631%, and metal up by 76%. And overall trash increased 22% year by year. Mostly significant increase in illegal dumping. This is another comparison where I say, like, 5 million pounds collected, larger sensitive memory, 30% increase from prior years, 2507 mattress collected, and 2267 tires collected. The significant operation challenges that we saw this year was illegal dumping, oversized piles, prohibited and illegible materials. Code enforcement issued six citations. It included an incident including a hazmat sulfur spill requiring emergency cleanup. We have to call the third party for the cleanup, which cost the city around $2,604.60. For the post cleanup, 85 hours of city labor were used. This year we divided the city into two zones and four bates. So the mostly if we see the illegal dumping, the beat one was around Fig Street and Yosemite Avenue. There were trash, furniture, bulky items blocking lane of travels. B2 was Merced Street and Carmen Avenue. Continuous dumping spanning two blocks blocking the roadways. Again on B2 at Columbia Street and Riverside, that's where we had the sulfur spill. Emergency third-party cleanup was required. B4 was Valencia Avenue and Parkwood Avenue. We had furnitures, debris all around the corners, traffic hazard blocking roadways. We could see that what the contributing factors would be. So landfill tipping fees have nearly increased 396% over the last three years, making the free city cleanup the only economical option for some. Significant increase in landfill disposal costs appear to be a contributing factor too, to increase illegal dumping. If you look at the taping fees at Madera Confirmed Landfill, so 2022-23, it was $25.36 per ton. In 2023-24, it raised to $67.97. 2024-25 increased to $125.74, which is 80% increase. Over the year, it's 168% increase. And we can factor out what the causes is for illegal dumping. These are some of the pictures that we collected, right? This is one of the site where we had the sulfur spill. And if you look at the sulfur spill, we have to call the house with team to get his cleared. These are again the illegal. If you look at the picture on the right, that's a snore, which was highly like, you know, hazardous for the driving lane, which was piled all almost blocking one of the lanes. This was basically like close to Lake and Ellis. This is few more sites where we see the illegal dumping. And there's tons of other photos we have if you guys interested, right? And this was only for the information purpose. Any questions? I'm here to answer.

All right. Thank you for that. Council Member Rodriguez.

Thank you, Harpier, for that information. So over the last I mean you've been here just a short term but this is what we see increasing year after year and to your point it's because of the tipping trees that we're seeing at the at the dump right so are we seeing any burning by any chance any complaints on burning because of uh dumping at all I mean not to my knowledge actually okay so we're not we're not seeing an increase in burning it's more just a more of a bulky People that don't want to take it to the dump they'll drop it here in these areas and you're seeing it more on the east side of the city.

It was throughout the city actually snore snore yeah we were Alice. sure Alice riverside. Basically, Howard.

So and what plans do we have to try to limit that these upcoming years like what what's that what's on the plan there I mean citations or what are we looking to it's hard to get these folks when they're coming in late at night and making these legal dumping.

Uh, we will be looking working with, uh, uh, this year and we might be working on some other plans to have, like, a centralized dumping location or anything like that, like, to eliminate the, uh, illegal dumping. So, we will be working on that plan, uh, in this year.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment council member. So. I know what I've checked around with our cities are doing for our residents. This is built in our, um, with the amount that we pay. For a household, so if our. Rates go up. because we're taking in $5 million and $1.3 million more this year, then that's more of the utility bill that's going to go up when it comes to Mid-Valley. So looking as an elected and watching the dollars that we have to charge our residents, I feel that staff might need to look and work with Mid-Valley on, like you said, director a center location and that's what a lot of cities do and they also do it for electronics even in the city in the county if you have electronics you have to show your bill to order to dump and they would put certain bins even for the cleanup at certain locations and say these are the days beat one can dump this is the week and you they have to truck it and I think that would really deter a lot of the dumping. Then people, I hear people who are like, I don't have a truck. Well, you can go to U-Haul and get one for $19.99 and dump your stuff, which is cheaper than going to the dump. Or I'm sure we have friends and there'll be a lot of junk men that charge a lot less than taking it to the dump. And a lot of the areas that I circled watching this is there was a lot of trash, but by the end of the week, a lot of it had been picked up from other residents. And so if that does happen when they're loading trucks or putting stuff out, to take i'm sure people will be going around picking it up for them also they don't have to take as much to the site, but I really think. As elected and staff, we really need to look for a different alternative because it's only going to keep going up and if it keeps going up, just like the hazard the hazmat we had to pay. You know, a few 1000 dollars that was 1 if we have to have to do more than 1 or 2, then again, that's that's coming out of our general fund. So, for me, I think we have to look at a different. Avenue, because we're not gonna be able to sustain this and it's wonderful that we've been able to do this do this all these years. I mean, our residents have been blessed because I think there's only if you talk to mid Valley. there's a handful of cities left doing it. And I'm talking one hand and we're one of them. But it was very hard for mid valley to get the numbers and and I mean, they understood and they knew they were going to be high. But I think when they finally got them like us, our mouse kind of dropped, we knew they were going to be high, we knew there was a lot of illegal dumping and, and trash and you kind of broke it down for us pretty clearly. So for me, I'm not sure how my colleagues feels that we're going to need to really look at doing something and enough time that we're preparing our residents Because they start collecting stuff, knowing that it's coming, you know, in the spring. So it's something that we need to really decide by before the 1st of the years that we can get it out there and let them know this is the changes. And these are why, and you have great photos to show our residents and we have photos now to show. This is why we have to make the change. Council member.

Thank you for the report. So I was one of the council members, as I'm sure everybody else, that had a lot of phone calls from the residents in my district. And I did see that it also led to a lot of neighborly disputes. People were trying to stop others from coming in and throwing their trash when they had already gone through other people's areas. So one of the things that I did take note is that people were complaining that the numbers were not very clear as far as where to reach out to whenever they had to report illegal dumping. I did, and then I did go through that, to that rabbit hole myself because I did say like, you know, the city did put this mailing out, there is this number, but then I ended up in the same situation where the numbers wasn't very clear. Like, what's the number for Mid Valley? What's the number for the city? Where can I actually get answers so that people will know that this is happening? And so that was one issue that was raised. And I really would like to know when the city council can expect to hear back on any type of plans or mitigation that's going to happen before the next annual cleanup. And I'm happy to see that, that This is it. It's being taken into consideration how the high fees are affecting people so they wouldn't have to go out and dump themselves, but changing the program so drastically to where we would have to go to this location. It could affect elderly people that might not have the manpower, the transportation, all of that to be able to just have the service. So again, I am very like about others shouldn't pay because some people can't follow the rules so that's what i would just really like to know um when can the city council expect to hear back about any mitigation mitigation efforts

so we we've started working with mid valley actually so pretty soon we'll have some meetings with mid valley and get to a plan going forward right so we will be coming back to council with an update shortly thank you perfect thank you with that i open up for public comment anyone in the chamber anyone online or on zoom we have none mayor okay i close public comment it's information only but a great report director

We have one last question council member Rodriguez. One last question because I think as we're going through this here with um illegal dumping it's about 70 percent or at least a good percentage of homes have some type of video and cameras and what have you and if in fact you're having illegal dumping in front of your home are we being active with uh this is probably a question for police department but being active as far as uh you don't have to get up there just nod your head I know you're you're hurting But are we being active as far as if folks complain, hey, here's a truck that stopped by my residence and they dropped all this stuff here. I mean, I'm not sure if that's something that's on the rise, but I'm sure that's something that we can help to prevent some of this illegal dumping as well.

to answer that question I will ask my friend chief to answer because we don't have any jurisdiction to get the video footage from somebody's personal camera and that will be PD actually helping us right yes and the difficult piece to that is most of the time your residential cameras don't catch

Uh, plates on vehicles, because they're perpendicular typically how they face they're coming out and they just face the street. So they'll get a maker a model. Um, but they typically won't get anything that you could follow up on, like, a license plate, or it'll be too far and blurry. So typically it doesn't help all that much. 1 of the problems we're seeing is, is a lot of them are really on the outskirts of the county city lines. And so it's the quickest place to dump to where there's non residential directly along that street. The big one he showed was Merced Street. There was no homes that really line Merced Street. It's brick walls that line that street. And so it's easy for them to dump and then get right back out into the county lines. The other piece that we saw high issues worth is some of the construction companies that are trying to mitigate their fees by not having to go to the dump. So they'll use the annual cleanup for their dump sites. So those are some of our big issues. We did catch a few. We did have some neighbors call in, which also assisted in the detainment of a few. But overall, it's pretty difficult, the amount of illegal dumping that goes on.

Thank you, Chief. Again, thank you, Harpier. That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you. And we also have to keep our citizens safe because there was a couple calls I had that they did call on the people that were dumping. They went out and approached them and it wasn't a very safe situation. So we have to think about that to keeping our residents safe. So thank you for that report. Moving on.

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 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 agenda eyes and which meet other requirements for action.

Thank you for that I will start with council member Vegas.

of the report thank you council member Rodriguez I yes mayor myself mayor and the council member Sakurai attended the grand opening of the heartland opportunity center the ark down on 20 I wrote 26 I wanted to just say thank you for the presence that we had representation from the city but at the same time it was good to see That the center is now open, I think what they bring to a lot of these folks, um, especially folks that are challenged. Um, it's it's it was really good to see, um, how, uh, the center will help a lot of those, uh, um, members of our community. And at the same time, you know, being positive growth in that area. So, anyhow, I just wanted to report that. Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you for that councilwoman here.

I had a wonderful time during the Juneteenth celebration at Courthouse Park. I would just really like to congratulate the organizers, Black Saints United, the City of Madera, Councilwoman Anita Evans. It was a very lovely day. The weather helped and it was just good fun for the whole family. So it was great to be out there celebrating Juneteenth and I look forward to

this saturday 4th of july the fireworks show at the madera fairgrounds and just celebrating the 250th anniversary and that's my report thank you thank you councilwoman evans oh okay thank you very much i thought you were just going to come straight on down okay first and foremost thank you to everyone that came out to my colleagues that came out pitched in and it was it was awesome chief thank you fire thank you everyone we had over 250 people to show up um next year i understand i was instructed that the gospel fest is here to stay so Just know that next year I'll be running around crying and begging and everything. If you guys have lists of vendors, please send them to me so that we can do better. I've had some great suggestions from my colleagues as to how things should go and how they run. And this was the first time that it was given to me. I was blessed to receive this message early morning to do a gospel fest. So Black Saints United, City of Madera, I think we're on the map. So people were very happy. And I just want to say thank you one more time to everyone. So that's my report.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Zachariah.

Thank you. Just again, an invitation for the fourth. You know, we got confirmation there'll be fireworks. It'll be a great show. The city thanks Joe and for his team for everything they're doing to put this together. It sounds like it's going to be another great event. So you can make it. If not, you should be able to sleep, probably able to see it from your house. But it'd be nice to see you guys out there too. Thank you.

Council member Montez I'm gonna try to make it this year out there how you can see well from the park I do I do want to say though that I hope everybody is safe and sane for the 4th of July I have noticed a little bit of a reduction in illegal fireworks or at least just closed I don't know if that's something that the staff is saying too, but I do appreciate the efforts that you guys are putting forward to make sure that everybody is safe and we're not having our public safety officers out there having to chase people down and put out the fires. But thank you. Hopefully everybody has a good holiday.

Mayor Mrakas, Thank you for your comment and I just have a couple things first one is neighborhood watch and mayor pro tim's neighborhood every one for showing up our fire police. Mayor Mrakas, We had chief their commander, a lot of residents, a lot of information and that leads me to my second thing, if you watch the news, we had our. Mayor Mrakas, Corporal Smith on the news talking about he bikes in the city and how we really did a crackdown. this week on e-bikes and pedestrians crossing the street so thank you for highlighting that safety is important in the city and we have eyes watching everyone so be aware be safe out there on saturday and thank those um staff for working on fourth of july and being away from their family i know that's not easy so with that we have no closed session and we will see you on july 15th i adjourn the meeting at 7 0 6. have a good evening everyone