City Council - Regular Meeting

initial review of interim city attorney the last is public employment pursuant to government code section five four nine five seven B title interim city clerk recruitment is there any public comment on closed session items at this moment there are no public comments we will close the closed session at six oh seven

Hello? Hi, we're having a technical difficulty right now and we're trying to fix it.

Okay, sounds good. All right, bye.

Thank you. Oh, he's going to say.

We'll go to Council Member Nakanishi.

Here.

All right. Council Member Bregman. Here. Council Member Craig Hensley.

Here.

Mayor Yepes. Here. And Mayor Pro Tempore, Mikey Hothi. Here.

Thank you. We have a quorum. First, we have a presentation for Building and Code Staff Appreciation Day. I'm not sure who's in it, except if you wanted to just come up to the podium. I think this is probably one of the more difficult jobs in the city, so I just want to really highlight the appreciation that we have for this department. But I'll just kind of go and read off the proclamation, then I'll present it. Building and Code Staff Appreciation Day. Whereas Building and Code Staff Appreciation Day is observed annually on September 1 to recognize dedicated professionals who administer and enforce building, fire, property maintenance, energy, accessibility, and related codes that protect the health, safety, and welfare of our communities. Whereas building officials, plans, examiners, building inspectors, permit technicians, code enforcement officers, and administrative support staff play an essential role in ensuring that construction is safe, resilient, and compliant with adopted codes while providing valuable service to the residents, businesses, contractors, and design professionals. Whereas these public servants strengthen the City of Lodi by supporting responsible development, protecting public investment, protecting disaster resilience, and enhancing the quality of life for all who work, live, and visit our community. Whereas building in code profession requires extensive technical knowledge and sound judgment integrity and a commitment to continual education in response to evolving construction methods, technologies and building safety standards, whereas the City of Lodi proudly joins communities throughout California and the nation in recognizing the invaluable contributions of building and code professionals, expressing appreciation for their unwavering dedication to public service and building safety. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City of Lodi does hereby proclaim September 1, 2026 as Building and Code Staff Appreciation Day in the City of Lodi. I encourage all residents, officials, and employees to recognize and express appreciation for the essential contributions of the administrative professionals in our community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Houthi and City Council. I am Interim Community Development Director Cynthia Marsh, and tonight I'm pleased to introduce our Chief Building Official, Derek Poe. We are joined by members of our building and code enforcement staff known as Committee Improvement, and we appreciate the opportunity to recognize these staff. I'll turn it over to Derek, who will help us with recognizing these folks on Building and Code Staff Appreciation Day. Thank you.

Thank you, Cynthia. Tonight I'd like to take a moment to recognize and thank our Building and Code staff for the important work they do every day for our community and their dedication to the City of Lodi. Every day, City of Lodi employees come to work with one goal in mind, to give 100% to the residents and customers that we serve. Their work often happens behind scenes, but is essential to keeping our city safe, well maintained, and growing responsibly. From reviewing plans and conducting inspections to helping residents, businesses, and contractors navigate codes and requirements, our staff bring professionalism, knowledge, and dedication to their jobs every day. Building and Code Staff Appreciation Day is an opportunity to recognize not only what they do, but the way they do it, with patience, fairness, consistency, and a genuine commitment to serving the City of Lodi and its residents. To all of our Building and Code Staff, thank you for your hard work, your expertise, your dedication to the City of Lodi, and to your commitment to our community. We appreciate everything that you do and the important role that you play in making Lodi a great place to live, work, and build. Please join me in giving our building and code staff a well-deserved round of applause. So next up will be the senior building inspector, Kevin.

Mine's just a very simple statement for the other two inspectors who weren't here tonight. I'd like to say just a few words on behalf of myself and them that Lucas and Quincy couldn't be here tonight and we thank the City Council for taking the time to acknowledge our department and its contribution to the success of our city. Now just speaking for myself I'd like to thank the city for giving me this opportunity to work with such a wonderful bunch of people.

Not pandering.

Seriously, I mean it and that may sound contrived but it is true. Never in my 30 plus years as an inspector have I encountered so many great people, co-workers, administrators, residents and even contractors. It's been very positive and I hope to continue this relationship for many years. Thanks again for this acknowledgement.

Thank you.

Up next, we have the consent calendar. City Clerk, please introduce the consent calendar.

At this moment, the City Council is going to consider items C1 through C14. Members of the public, if you would like to make comments, you are limited to five minutes in comments. And so

Mayor? Would any members of the council like to pull any items off of consent to vote on separately? Seeing none. Anybody virtually? Hearing none. Any public comments on consent calendar? Seeing none. I'll entertain a motion.

Second motion in the second. And we will have to do a roll call vote since we have people remote. So we will start with Council Member Bregman. Yes. Council Member Nakanishi. Yes. Council Member Craig Hensley. Yes. Mayor Yepes. Yes. And Mayor Pro Tempore Hothi.

Yes.

Great. Consent calendar passes. Thank you. Comments by the public on non-agenda items? Do we have any public comments?

Yes, we do. We have Maria Rufino. And please note that I will be doing the interpretation for Maria.

Good evening everybody. I've lived here for many years. Fighting for the homeless.

Fighting for the homeless. fighting for the homeless, fighting for the parks, and gonna take that fight over to Sacramento.

This is for the mayor. I'd like to tell you about what's happening in Lodi. He left Lodi get destroyed by the criminals. Que han robado y han acusado a inocentes.

They've robbed and accused of innocent people.

Tengo más de tres años hablando.

I have more than three years talking about this. Del criminal anticristo. Of the antichrist criminal.

Que ha hecho destrucción primero a Lodi.

The destruction to the city of Lodi.

A USA y todo California.

A USA and California.

Y no han abierto sus ojos.

And you haven't opened your eyes.

Hombre loco, traidor.

A crazy man, traitor.

Ha traído a mis hijos con mis vecinos de rehenes.

They've gotten my kids and neighbors.

Acusándolos inocentemente.

Accusing them.

This man used to rob people and has accused my children. They've accused him of drugs. My son is a college student. He's destroyed his college career.

He would bring him from Los Angeles to Lodi. Many days. And he would accuse them falsely. And where they would bring them. They kill a lot of animals.

They sacrifice animals.

For the Antichrist. We have three and a half years of this Antichrist.

And it needs to stop.

Because he's cutting off testicles.

And men's genitals. Who are Christians.

And I've been a woman persecuted because I'm a prophet. A Christian prophet.

And she hasn't sold out. To the Antichrist.

And he brought my children and destroyed them.

Because he discovered them.

Where he manifested himself by her home close to Lodi.

And these animal sacrifices. Of the Antichrist.

In California, this is a law. Killing cats.

Killing dogs.

And killing roosters.

The California code is 597. I'm not sure if it's still there, but it should be a crime killing animals and children.

And the city should take serious consideration of this. It's not a game.

Because I'm going to keep walking. And I'm going to start handing out flyers. So people can wake up.

Because they're fogged by the Antichrist.

No more sacrifices of animals. Este hombre, mi vecino, sacó las cenizas de mi hijo muerto.

He got the ashes of my dead son.

Es una ley en California.

And that's a law in California.

Es la ley 7052.

It's law 7052.

Restos de cenizas es un crimen.

Yeah, taking ashes is a crime.

Y esos criminales están libres.

And those criminals are free.

Les ponen sus cargos.

They put their things.

Y se los quitan con sacrificios de animales.

And they take them for the sacrifices of animals.

Pero a Dios no lo vamos a engañar. but can't fool God.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Thank you.

Do we have any other public comments? No.

Mr. Slaughterbeck? Oh, sorry. Yeah, sorry, we do. John Slaughterback.

Can you hear me?

Yes. Maybe. I think my mic is off, though.

John Slaughterback. I'm a resident of the city of Lodi. I came here tonight, I guess, for threefold. I wanted to meet with the new city manager and welcome her. But I've already met her and welcomed her to the city of Lodac. And I wanted to publicly thank Ramon Yepes for meeting with me and researching some of the questions I had. And he went out of his way to research this and find some answers for me. And I thanked him through an email, but I wanted to do it in public. uh he went out of his way like i said to me ramones got character he's good for the city uh i i like ramon for what he did for me and he'll always be number one in my book and then i'd like to thank lisa craig for coming to the uh uh national night out and encouraging me to come back to council and i thought those were nice words that lisa spoke and i'd like to say up front too i emailed all the council members an email and i emailed the city manager but she didn't get hers did council get theirs no i haven't gotten an email from anything mr slaughterback Well. Well, I kind of pushed me to a stop here, then I kind of wanted you to know in advance what I had to say, so I think I'll hold up to the next time on this. To me, it's serious information that I would like to get out to the city and so I'll next time. Maybe I will email you and give everybody. I'll try it again. OK, thank you very much. I'll do it next time.

Thank you. I actually do have an email from me on Tuesday about traffic. I have an email from me on Tuesday about traffic. I don't know. I got it.

I don't see it. I'll make sure everybody gets it.

Yeah, thank you. Any further public comments?

See none already.

We will go to Council comments on on agenda. Anybody online? Hearing none. Anybody in person?

I just a couple comments comments, I want to note, we were all at the groundbreaking for the new police department training facility. Great event looking forward to that project being completed down the road want to acknowledge Captain Kent for his leadership on that and really appreciate the fact that we're working closely with delta college. to get the post-program training there as well as the EBOC. So a good project moving forward for police department. Just a couple other things. City Manager and I met with the Lodi Improvement Committee. We think we have a very good process forward for ensuring that that committee is fully populated. Karen Hollweg, And has some very specific direction relative to city council strategic plan priorities so moving forward with them also attended the load I planning Commission meeting and we'll be seeing something I think later this fall. Karen Hollweg, dealing with the general plan update. want to compliment uh our interim community development director who's left i guess on uh the fact that uh that information is is coming forward um in a very comprehensive way and lastly the fun event appreciated the women's club uh hosting along with um one of our local historians, Elaine Dashner, who did a terrific job celebrating Laura DeForest Gordon Day. Lots of fun. We all got to dress up in late 19th century garb and enjoy Don't start laughing, the bra toss, okay? So a lot of good celebration around somebody who really was a critical influence in our city and to women in the state of California. So appreciated that on behalf of the Women's Club and Elaine. So thank you, that's it.

Thank you. Any further council comment? Seeing none, we will go to regular calendar, G1.

Adopt a adopt a resolution of the Lodi City Council appointing Taryn Jones to the position of city attorney and approving the related employment agreement effective September 21 2026 We have a presentation.

Good evening, Council. James Peavy, Human Resources Manager. Effective April 11th, 2026, the city attorney position became vacant. The city engaged the services of an executive recruitment firm to conduct recruitment to fill this position. The city council and various interview panels participated in the candidate selection process and selected Taryn Jones as a preferred candidate. The city council then directed the recruitment firm to negotiate the terms of the proposed appointment and employment agreement. The recruitment firm and Taryn Jones subsequently reached agreement on the terms of the employment agreement, which are reflected in the attached employment agreement. Among other provisions, the agreement provides that Taryn Jones will be appointed city attorney effective September 21, 2026 for an initial three-year term with a yearly starting base salary of $272,000. Also with us tonight is Taryn Jones. Funding is in the fiscal year 2026, 2027 budget. Therefore, staff recommends council adopt a resolution of the Lodi City Council appointing Taryn Jones to the position of city attorney and approving the related employment agreement effective September 21st, 2026. Thank you.

Any council comments on this item? Anybody online? Hearing none. Any public comments on this item?

Seeing none.

With that, I'll entertain a motion if folks wanted to hear from you. Ms. Jones, did you want to introduce yourself?

certainly i wasn't sure if you wanted to hear from me first so um i'll be brief i just wanted to take an opportunity to say how honored i am that you have considered me for this appointment and how excited i am to be able to serve this community and work for this wonderful city and so i thank you as you consider your upcoming vote and let you know that i am very grateful and look forward to working both with you and the wonderful team that you've established here in in lodi

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

We participated. We all did the council and some of our community leaders and executive staff. And it was a robust search and just very thankful to have you and look forward to having you at the city attorney's office. With that, I'll entertain a motion.

If I might, before making the motion, make sure people know that I would say welcome, Taryn, but you already live in Lodi. So I'm very grateful to the fact that we have a Lodi resident as our city attorney. So thank you very much for putting your name forward and for accepting our offer. And we're pleased to have you with us. So with that, I would move that we adopt the resolution appointing Taryn Jones the position of city attorney. Second.

I have a motion and a second.

And we'll do roll call vote. I'll start with Councilmember Bregman. Yes. Councilmember Nakanishi. Yes. Councilmember Craig Hensley. Yes. Mayor Yepes. Yes. And Mayor Pro Tempore. Yes. Mike Hohothi.

Thank you. Motion passes. Congrats.

G to adopt a resolution rejecting protests and awarding contract for 2026 2028 tree maintenance project to elite maintenance and tree service of series for $616,700 and execute change orders for $100,000. We have a report.

So I do have the same presentation that I gave last week. I'm not planning on giving it, but I do have it in case someone has a question to pull it up. I did have one additional thing to add that was requested since then about just some background information on different potential procurement methods. And so I did want to just talk about a couple of those really briefly before we move on. So there's one method is a qualification-based selection. That's used for professional services such as engineers, architects, attorney services, maybe inspectors, that type of thing. There's the method that has a defined service, which is what we used on this one. That's a specific cost to cut a certain size tree or remove a certain size stump, that type of thing that you can define what that actual service is per that unit cost. Another method that you can list it is on an hourly employee rate. So if this employee that meets this category is out there, his rate is this dollars an hour, you can bid it out those. Both the way we did obviously plus that way is still a low bid based on an estimate hours of those services. And then the question also came up, could we do something like a monthly or annual retainer type of method, for lack of a better term, like you would an attorney, where they just cover your entire system for routine maintenance, emergencies, and you just pay a flat rate? That method wouldn't really work for us in this situation. Maybe if we had a really small amount of trees, like 50 or 100, where it's just, hey, do these on a five-year cycle and take care of any emergencies. But we've got about 12,500. So that method wouldn't really be appropriate for our type of service. But that was it. So I'm going to kind of move on to questions and open it up.

Thank you, Mr. Nathan. Council questions, comments?

Anybody online? I'll go ahead and make a council comment, if that's okay. Yep. So I'd like to note I have actually hired, or not hired, but utilized West Coast service about a month or two ago. And this is something that's actually offered to all Lodi residents. If you call our electric utility, and have any trees in the public right of way that are an electrical hazard, you can get West Coast out there and they will actually trim your trees for free. And again, two months I had utilized them and I gotta say I was completely impressed by their level of service, their level of care, their quality and their safety. It is unfortunate, however, that this city is in a budget deficit, and we as a council need to act accordingly, take this contract as a precedent for all, and in my belief, take the lowest bidder as state law defines. I wish there was another way around it, as well as figuring out keeping a company that has been with this city for decades. But in this case, our hands are tied, and again, we need to take this fiscal deficit as serious as possible. So my vote will be to accept our new company's bid.

Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Craig Hensley.

Thank you. Mr. Nathan, I think Councilman Bregman brought up an issue that we briefly touched on at the last council meeting. Lodi Electric Utility has a contract currently with West Coast Arborists.

They do, yes.

So perhaps what Mr. Bregman talked about is under that contract?

I would think it is, but I'm not aware of that. That's correct. Their contract is to, so I'm assuming electric utility pays for that work and no cost to the resident, but I'm not super aware of their contract.

Do we happen to know if that contract is still in place and this action doesn't affect that contract?

That's correct. It's still in place, and this action doesn't impact that.

Okay. So they do have a contract with Lodi Electric Utility. Do you happen to know? I'm sorry, I'm asking you if Mr. Berkheimer is here. I'd ask him, do we happen to know, is it a two-year, is it?

I do happen to know it is it goes through I want to say through June 27 and it's it's it started in 2017 I believe and so they have another year on it okay all right thank you I appreciate that if I might just say that I I do not want to undermine

the staff's ability to review criteria and to make determination on an RFP and its consistency with whatever method is determined appropriate for the selection of a respondent. So if we start going down that path, then every protest that comes in council would be second guessing staff decision. And I think that puts the city in a very, uh, in a position of liability. So I'm comfortable and confident that on both the first go round and then the second go around that staff made every effort. And I think the city attorney had at the last meeting, uh, verified that they felt comfortable with the staff's criteria and selection process. So with that, I'll be sticking with my original vote to approve Elite as the respondent, qualified respondent. Thank you.

Thank you. Further council comments?

I have a comment.

Sure. Go ahead, Mayor.

So first of all, like here where I'm connected is almost 5 a.m. and I'm connected because this is important to me because this contract is not just a typical contract and we're not undermining the whole process. The council has to intervene in special circumstances like this one to make it clear to the whole process. And before I go beyond, I'm just going to say that my vote is going to be to revere it again. So just that's all my comments.

Thank you. Council Member Nakanishi, did you have something?

It was 2-2 vote and so forth and we had to come back here so Cameron can make the decision. We've discussed it thoroughly and I'm not going to go over that. Anyway, I'll keep the same vote I had.

Public comments? Do we have public comments on this item?

Yes, we do. First person we have is Ben Canterbury.

Mayor and member of the council and city staff, members of the community, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Ben Canterbury and I represent Elite Maintenance and Tree Service. We recognize the decision is about more than selecting the tree contractor. It is about public safety, the health of Lodi's urban forests, emergency response, communication with the residents, and the appearance of the community. We also respect West Coast arborists and the many years they have served Lodi. Our purpose tonight is not to diminish their experience, but to assure the Council that EMTS is fully prepared to provide responsive and dependable service the city expects. EMTS is a Central Valley grown company. with the local operating model. Lodi will have dedicated local leadership, qualified field crews, clear points of contact, and direct access to decision makers. When city staff calls, they will know who is responsible. And when an emergency occurs, we will be ready to respond. We have also developed a detailed 90-day transition plan covering staff coordination, route verification, equipment readiness, safety, production monitoring, and regular performance reviews. Our goal is simple, a smooth transition with no disturbance and service. Communication will equally be important. We will provide city staff with clear updates on completed work, upcoming schedules, open items, emergency response, and corrective actions. City staff should never have to chase its contractor for information. EMTS proposal also provides meaningful financial savings for the city. However, we are not asking you to select us based on price alone. Savings only create value when the contractor can perform the work safely, consistently, and professionally. We believe our proposal delivers both strong financial value and disciplined operational plan. We understand trust is not automatically transferred. When a contract changes hands, it must be earned. We are prepared to learn Lodi's neighborhoods, understand the city's priorities, respond to the community concerns, and earn the trust through our performance. The question is not only who has served Lodi in the past, but who's best prepared to serve Lodi moving forward. EMTS is ready to provide qualified tree care professionals, responsive local leadership, transparent communication, and safe, organized transition. We respect and ask the council to support the staff recommendation and award the contract to EMTS. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, sir. Next speaker is Ian Ashby. Then he's going to be followed by Jose Flores.

Hello. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come up and speak. My name's Ian Ashby. I'm the regional arborist for Elite Maintenance and Tree Service. A little bit of my credentials. I'm a board-certified master arborist, a registered consulting arborist, a certified urban community forester, a certified tree care safety professional. I'm also tree risk assessment qualified and have the prescription pruning qualification. I'm also the vice president on the board of directors for Tree Fresno, a local nonprofit that's very similar to Tree Lodi. I've served on that board for almost three years and the CEO of Tree Fresno wanted to share some of her thoughts on EMTS and our involvement with them over the years. She couldn't be here, but she did provide a letter for us. So to whom it may concern, my name is Mona Neandoro Cummings. I have served as CEO of Tree Fresno, a 40 year old urban tree planting nonprofit for the past eight years. Our working footprint in Fresno, Madera, Kings and Tulare counties. We work with 24 cities, over 30 school districts, dozens of businesses, all major public agencies, churches, and everyone in between. In celebration of 40 years of expanding the urban tree canopy across the central San Joaquin Valley, we calculated that we have planted well over 55,000 trees. I am writing to support the Elite Maintenance and Tree Service bid to work with the City of Lodi based on the knowledge, skills, and ability of Elite's tree team, which works hard under the direction of a seasoned certified arborist. Approximately five years ago tree fresno was so impressed with the enthusiasm elite professionals exhibited about our work that we invited a manager to serve on our board of directors. We are extremely selective on who we select to serve on the board, especially when it pertains to landscape and tree services. as each board director is expected to reflect similar values to Tree Fresno. Since that time, we have had a total of three board directors serve, with at least two of them being certified arborists. We have benefited from the company as they support our efforts to educate the community about the importance of trees, how to care for trees, and they have also planted trees as part of our projects. In conclusion, I wholeheartedly recommend Leap Maintenance and Tree Service to the City of Lodi. They far supersede the quality of work being performed by other tree service companies in the city of Fresno. Tree Fresno chooses to work with tree companies that are guided by the principles of the International Society of Arboriculture, and this is one of a handful of companies that do. Thank you.

Next speaker, Jose Flores, then he's going to be followed by Tim Patterson.

Good evening, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Jose Flores and I'm here on behalf of Elite Maintenance and Tree Service. Today, I'm asking the Council to support the recommendation of the City staff and to move forward with the awarding tree maintenance contract to Elite Maintenance and Tree Service. Elite maintenance and tree service was the lowest responsive bidder. We met the qualifications established in the RFP, and we have demonstrated that we have the experience, technology, and the personnel necessary to successfully perform this work. Our qualifications are not simply based on what we say we can do. They are demonstrated through the contracts and current partnerships we have. We have successfully executed a four-year contract with City of Roseville, a total contract value of $4.2 million to maintain and manage 16,000 trees. The contract requires us to perform professional tree maintenance while also utilizing GIS-based inventory systems similar to the requirements for this contract. We have also signed a three-year contract with California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation providing those similar services. In addition, we have a tree inventory contract with Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority, giving us additional experience to work with public agencies. Most importantly, we understand this contract is not simply about removing trees, pruning trees, or responding to work orders. It's about being a responsible partner for the City of Lodi. protecting the public safety and maintain the city's investment in its urban forest. For those reasons, I respectfully asked City Council to allow the process to move forward as recommended by the city staff and award the contract to Elite Maintenance and Tree Service. Thank you for your time.

Next speaker is Tim Patterson and then final speaker will be Ken Giotta.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Nice to see you all again. It's been my pleasure and my honor to help you guys grow and maintain your urban forest for the past 20 years. I've been a part of it since the beginning, so truly we really appreciate that. I won't take up a lot of your time. Want to mention just like three things, three points. First is I've been doing this, like I said, for 20 years. I've been reviewing these proposals and bids many, many times over. And any time you have a significant difference between the lowest bidder and the highest bidder, that generally means there might be a problem with the scope of work or the bid itself. In this particular case, the lowest, the highest bidder was almost three times the amount of the lowest bidder. So I mean, again, in my experience at wards asking whether this was truly a competitive bid or not, because it seems like people are not understanding the bid. If they're not understanding the bid, then it's not a competitive bid. Secondly, again, With elite tree maintenance, I understand they said they've done a little bit of the inventory and GPS, and that's fine. But I don't think they live up to what your contract was asking them for. In addition, they needed to provide that information in the bid itself. So they didn't provide the information of the bid itself, that they had done this before, that they had had that before. They didn't provide that information until city staff went and had meetings with them and asked them to show it. So that again kind of defeats the purpose of competitive bidding process. That should have been in their initial bid. It should not have been having to be asking them afterwards. We provided it in our bid. They should have provided it in their bid too. You need to provide the same thing at the same time for it to be a competitive bid. So once again, my third point is I'd just like to remind you guys, You have in your rights to throw out all of the bids and just put this back out, and I think that's really what you should do, considering some of these discrepancies that are part of this bidding process. So thank you for your time.

Ken Jota.

Thank you City Council members for listening to me. My name is Ken Chioda. I've been at West Coast Arbors for 17 years. That's three years less than the 20 years that WCA has provided the gold standard in the tree industry for Lodi. In those 20 years, we have never failed to be a pillar in the community. We never miss an Arbor Day. We never missed to fail to light the Christmas tree for Christmas. We have donated countless hours in things like Lodi Big Truck Day. We've had the city come over to our local farm where we train them on the latest ANSI standards and practices to how to maintain your trees. And we're proud of that because we are the gold standard in the tree industry. Within the city limits, there are 12,474 trees valued well over $42 million. I do not believe that elite landscaping is capable of maintaining such an urban forest. The only reason I think that is because they've never done it before. The city of Lodi, they have 350 Liuna Union members. 16 of which belong to West Coast Arborist, and they make a very livable wage. I beg you not to turn your back on them. Dr. Nakanishi, Councilmember Nakanishi, when we first met, you knew about West Coast Arborist and what we provided to the community, and you liked what we did. I hope you can find those feelings again, and I hope to change your mind. I urge you to reconsider. Does anybody know what the dollar multiplier is when it comes to local dollars? It means that if you give $1 to the employees that we have that own houses, pay property taxes, that dollar is going to 3X in the local community. And then it 3Xs again. I don't want to give that dollar to an out-of-town newcomer that is skeptical to me. I noticed number four on your wall right here says to be fiscally responsible. I urge you to be fiscally responsible. Our bid is a little bit more, but you get way more with it. We are the gold standard in the tree industry. He talked about growing 50,000 trees. I got 75,000 trees at a local farm right now that we're ready to plant anytime. Climate adaptive trees. I urge you to rebid this contract. I urge you. And I thank you for your time.

Seeing no further public comment.

Do we have any other public comments?

None.

Seeing none back to Council for deliberation. Just quick question. Mr. Nathan, could you remind me of what the price differential is between the two bids here?

It was just under $70,000.

And then the change order request is up to 100,000. That's true.

Yeah.

Well, I'll be really curious to see, and I'm asking for staff to give, assuming that we go with this other bid here today, I'll be curious as to what the change orders are here. So anyways, any other council comments? With that, I'll entertain a motion.

So move to approve G2 adopting resolution rejecting protests and awarding contract to Elite Maintenance and Tree Service.

Okay, we're going to do a roll call vote. Council member Bregman. Yes. Council member Nakanishi. Yes. Council member Craig Hensley.

Yes.

Mayor Yepes.

Sorry, I got in trouble with my internet, so I lost the last 30 seconds.

We're doing a roll call vote, sir. And we have your vote for yay or nay. For what is the motion?

There's a motion to approve the bid for elite.

The motion can be that again to approve the bid for elite. OK, no.

OK, and Mary Port and Puerto Hote.

No.

And that motion passes by a 3 to 2 vote.

OK, alright, thank you all. Motion passes. G3.

G3 adopt a resolution repealing and replacing the finance committee resolution to update committee membership objectives and appointment guidelines.

Good evening mayor and members of the council. I'm Jamie Bandy director of administrative services. The item before you tonight is a proposed membership update to the city's finance committee. The Finance Committee was established by the City Council in August 2025 as a standing advisory committee. The committee's role is to provide advice and recommendations to the City Council on financial matters, including financial policies, internal controls, investments, annual financial reporting, and budget policy. The committee currently consists of two City Council members and one community member with financial expertise. Since the committee was established, staff has evaluated its structure and identified an opportunity to strengthen its effectiveness by expanding community representation from one to three members, increasing the number of community members, will provide additional financial expertise and a greater diversity of perspectives when the committee reviews complex financial matters. It will also broaden community representation while maintaining the committee's role as an advisory body to the city council. The proposed change is intended to strengthen the committee, not change its purpose or authority. Under the proposed structure, the committee would increase from three members to five members. The two city council member positions would remain unchanged. The proposed change would add two additional community member positions, bringing the total number of community members from one to three. Community members would need to be either Lodi residents or individuals who work or own a business in Lodi and would be expected to have education, experience or professional expertise in a relevant financial field. The resolution also maintains the provision that no more than two current city council members may serve on the committee at any one time. Important to note the proposed resolution does not change the committee's overall purpose or scope. The committee will continue to serve in an advisory capacity and provide recommendations to the city council in the five areas that you see on the slide. And the proposed change is primarily focused on strengthening the committee's membership and bringing additional financial expertise and community perspectives to this work. Staff recommends that the city council adopt the proposed resolution repealing and replacing the existing finance committee resolution. The proposed resolution would expand the committee from three members to five members by increasing community membership from one to three. The committee's purpose and advisory role would remain unchanged The proposed resolution also updates the membership and appointment guidelines to reflect the expanded structure. And staff believes that this change will strengthen the committee by providing additional financial expertise, broader community representation, and a greater diversity of perspectives when advising the city council on complex financial matters. That concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Mayor Mrakas, Thank you i'll just say that myself Maria pez and one of our planning Commissioners Gary wall sitting in the audience here, all three of us are on the committee, I think this is a good idea just to increase committee Community involvement and transparency and just open it up to any further Council comments.

I spoke with the city manager about this because we do have some good expertise, whether it's related to banks or other financial institutions that may or may not have their headquarters located in Lodi but have branches and involvement. So I had made a suggestion that the language relative to qualifications state Lodi residents or individuals who work or have a business interest in Lodi. They may not work here every day of the week, but they come here regularly and their institution is represented here in Lodi. So that's the only change I would make is to the qualifications. Thank you. Thank you.

Any council comments online? Hearing none, public comment?

Thank you. I think it's an excellent recommendation. I would also recommend perhaps bringing in advisors. Once a year, you go through a budgeting process. You don't necessarily have to have people that are constantly showing up to meetings for everything, but there is a level of expertise when you're dealing with a budget that's $300 million that's spread across multiple departments, a lot of complexity, and it would behoove you to find people, recruit people, whether it's from outside the region or actually inside Lodi, to come in, and analyze this year was 851 pages to go through that and dissect it and come up with recommendations for this particular committee that then winds up back here. And I would also recommend some financial literacy training, I would say, kind of across the board, which is If you don't come from a financial background and you don't come from a large corporate environment or a large municipal environment, you don't really have the background to kind of figure out how to dissect and make decisions around that. So if there's a way to bring in some training into the organization, I think that would be valuable as well. Thank you.

Any other public comment? Seeing none.

Can I make a comment? The two city council members, you want to expand the membership, is that right? Okay, all right. And how about the cost of the city? Are you going to have staff there? And how often are you going to have the meetings?

We already do have staff that attends Christina Jeremy and actually city and often do what's it once a month once a month, something like that once a month. Just i'm asking it doesn't go more than an hour all right typically.

Just to follow up on the comment made. Actually, the Council. OSBT, Karen Hollweg, And i'm not sure who at the next level down with staff, there is a new requirement now that we. OSBT, Karen Hollweg, are required to have the fiscal accountability and and remember what the classes for cal cities, but cal city says operate, we do have to be certified now so every Council member will have to go through that and I am not sure if that goes down to the. Treasurer, city treasurer or not, but I assume there is a certain level. Is that Ms. Bandy? Is that? That's correct. OK. So everyone has to have that training, and it's provided at CalCities. And I'm sure they'll have an option online, just like ethics training that we have to go through. So hopefully that will stick. And then secondly, I do appreciate the comment relative to, you know, I had a discussion with a CEO of a major corporation and he said, you know, I would love to be able to have my people apply for this, but I've got them so busy right now that the advisory side may be of some value. I think actually this would be addressed when we have the budget meeting discussions because we are looking forward to next year. in terms of how we address our structural deficit. So those meetings should give us the opportunity to get the kind of expertise and advice. And that I would also say that since these finance meetings happen monthly, having advisors or having someone that comes in and comments on something that the finance committee would obviously have the benefit of listening to others who may not wanna commit to a meeting every month, but may have a very informed approach to how we look at our finances for the city. So thank you, that's it. Do you want any other, do you need a motion? OK, move to approve G3, thank you very much, to support the addition of two members of the Finance Committee.

We have a motion, all second.

OK, we'll do a roll call vote. We'll start with Councilmember Bregman. Yes. Councilmember Nakanishi. Yes. Councilmember Craig-Hensley. Yes. Mayor yep is yes and Mary protein body healthy, yes.

Thank you motion passes G 4.

G 4 approved plans and specifications authorized advertisement for bids for Lodi parking structure vehicle security upgrades and adopt a resolution authorizing city manager to work on track to Louis responsive bitter and execute change orders $250,000 combined.

This one will be really quick. I do have a slide. Walford, I don't know if you can switch over to my computer. You see it on there? So this is a project we've been working on for a while. I paused for a little bit while we dealt with a different issue in the parking structure, but this project's gonna just put a couple of improvements at the vehicle entrances into the parking structure. So we have an entrance off of Pine and we have an entrance off of Elm. There you go. So on the aerial on the right side, you can see I've got those circled where our entrances are. So Pine right now, is the primary interest and it's going to stay the primary interest and we're just going to install a swing gate on the entrance and the exit that forces vehicles to stop allows security to have better eyes on the vehicles going in allows the security cameras to to document those vehicles better than them just kind of whipping in there like they do now and then on the elm street side we're going to install a roll-up vehicle gate similar to that one in the picture there along with the pedestrian gate, and that will allow us to reduce the vehicle access late at night, which also helps out the security guard and the camera access. So I just wanted to make sure everyone kind of saw what was going on. Once this project's done, we are going to open up the third floor. This is kind of what we've been waiting on to get that done, because we did have a major uptick in vandalism up there, which kind of kicked off this project. That's it. I just wanted to give you a visual of what we're planning on doing.

Any council comments?

Just one. I know we're looking at closing the Elm Street side, but I do notice, because I take Pine Street every day, that we do get backups. into the intersection because people are waiting at the red light and someone's wanting to turn in the garage and there's really only one car length maybe left over at the end. Is there? I don't know how to address that, and there's probably a reason that we're keeping the Pine Street versus the Elm Street open, but can you address that Mr Nathan?

Yeah, the the gate will be kind of as far back as it can be to allow two cars to pull in. Also, it's you don't need to grab a ticket. So it's really just pretty quick. It is. You just go and slap a button. It goes up. You don't have to wait for anything. So we don't think that there will be much of additional delay on as far as backing up into the street or the intersection.

Okay. We can just hope that there will be no mechanical failures then.

sorry yes yeah I mean we do have the the security guard is there all the time so if there's an issue okay we'll know pretty quick we'll get the arm up and you know store it upright and tell it can get okay thank you thank you what's the chain of command for the security guard if there's an incident I assume they go directly they go straight to PD in fact they're the one that makes the majority of the reports for the transit station in the garage most of them comes from the security

And then who handles the contract? Is that your department?

Well, it's kind of a combined one because it also serves like library, city hall complex. Yeah, Hatchett Street Square uses it. So it actually is being rebid right now through administrative services. But the costs are split based on where they're at. Also, the access center utilizes that contract as well.

Got it. Thank you. Council comments? Public comment? Seeing none, entertain a motion.

OK. And before we go to that motion, for the record, Mayor Yepes has departed the meeting at 8.16 PM. So we'll start with a roll call. Council Member Bregman?

We actually have to get a motion.

Oh, we didn't make the motion. Sorry about that.

You're wanting to get out of here too, huh, Wolford? I would move that we approve item G4.

I'll second it.

All right. Now we can do a roll call vote. Council Member Bregman? Yes. Council member Nakanishi. Yes. Council member Craig Hensley. Yes. As noted, Mayor Yep is absent. Vice Mayor Potempore-Hothi.

Yes.

Motion passes unanimous 4-0.

Thank you. H1.

H1, waive the second reading and adopt the ordinance amending Lodi Municipal Code Chapter 2.13 of the Municipal Code to transfer the oversight, direction, and control of the city clerk from the city council to the city manager. James Peavy is not here, but this was heard last week. And city manager, do you have anything to say?

This is just the second reading of the item that the council heard previously, changing the hiring authority from the city council to the city manager.

Does the council have any clarifying comments? Hearing none, public comments? Seeing none, entertain a motion.

Move to approve H1.

Second.

OK. Councilmember Bregman? Yes. Councilmember Nakanishi?

Yes.

Council member Craig Hensley. Yes. Mayor Yepes absent. And Mayor Pro Tempore Hoti.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Thank you. With that, I'll entertain, or I'll adjourn this meeting at 8.21 p.m. Good night.