City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, residents of Tulare, visitors and staff, and fellow council members to the Telaria City Council meeting for Tuesday, May 19. As we start with our meeting, our pledge of allegiance will be led by vice mayor Harrell. And after our pledge of allegiance, please remain standing for invocation led by Brian Bell.

Our father in heaven, we are so very grateful to be able to be gathered here today. We're grateful to, this year, be celebrating the, two hundred fiftieth anniversary of this great nation, and we're grateful for our government by the people and and for the people. And we're grateful for those who dedicate their time and talents to be able to, bring that forward, especially here in our city. We ask thee to, please bless those that are met here today that they will be able to be guided by thee. They will have the wisdom and the fortitude to make the correct decisions for this community to be able to bring it forward and help us to be prosperous.

We ask you to protect those that are away, and especially we ask a blessing upon those that are currently serving our country and the armed forces that thou might be with them and with their families. We pray for these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you, pastor Bill. Alright. Good evening. Next on our agenda is proclamations and recognitions. And as I have our director, Tricia Whitfield, coming to the front with me, we have a proclamation recognizing National Public Works Week, which is May 17 through the twenty third. Good evening, Tricia. Good

evening. Yes.

So for everybody, this proclamation is made on behalf of all of our public works professionals, whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of vital importance of sustainable and resilient communities and to public health, high quality of life and well-being of the people of Tulare. And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, and employees at all levels of government and the private sector who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas it is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children in the city of Tulare to gain knowledge and maintain ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities. The year 2026 marks the sixty sixth annual national public works week, rooted in service powered by community sponsored by the American Public Works Association. And whereas the city council recognizes the importance of the work performed by public works professionals and extends its appreciation to them and surely, of course, our appreciation to you, Tricia, and all of your supporting staff.

Now, therefore, we, the city council of the city of Tulare, do hereby proclaim the week of May 17 to the twenty third twenty twenty six as National Public Works Week, and if everybody join me in thanking you for your service. And if you'd like to say a speech or something on behalf of your department and a wonderful job your team does.

I just wanna say thank thank the council for the recognition of National Public Works Week. We have a 120 employees in public works. They work hard daily to provide us with water, sewer services, trash collection, all of our street maintenance, and fleet maintenance. And so we have an amazing staff that, most of their work goes unseen. I like it that we're under the radar most days, but, I just wanna say thank you to my staff for the work they do day in and day out to provide for the community of Tulare. Thank you.

The next item on our agenda, 3.2, is a proclamation for National Salvation Army Week, which is May 11 through May 17. To the public and to my fellow council members, I unfortunately passed on the wrong information to The Salvation Army who is not here tonight. So what we have the proclamation, but what I'd like to do is I'd like to extend to The Salvation Army the correct date and have them come back perhaps another time so we can surely recognize their services. Item four on our agenda, public comment. Members of the public wishing to comment on any item not appearing on the agenda may address the city council at this time.

State law prevents council from acting on any matter not on the agenda. However, your comments may be referred to staff for follow-up. This is also the time for the public to comment on items listed under the consent calendar or to request an item from the consent calendar be pulled for discussion purposes. If you are attending the meeting remotely, press 9 on your phone to raise your hand or click or you can participate with your questions or raise your hand in the webinar, and the city clerk will assist you. Do we have anyone in chambers who'd like to make public comment? Okay. Madam clerk, do we have anyone in the webinar?

We, we have Donette Silva, Carter from the Chamber of Commerce.

Good evening, mayor Isherwood and members of council. This is Donette with the Tulare Chamber of Commerce. And tonight, I just want to share out some information. We're very excited that later this week on Thursday, we will graduate the newest class of leadership Tulare that has been working very diligently within our community to learn more about what they can do as emerging leaders and also to impact youth in the community with their community service project that they recently did. On Thursday at 5PM, we welcome the Elk Slodge as one of our newest members and would like to invite everyone to join us at 5PM.

They will have their ribbon cutting ceremony. We want to announce that tonight, we have our first group that is graduating from our new partnership with Civic and where we offered our Spanish language cohort over at TVS. And we have a series of workshops that are called do it yourself workshops. So come and learn more about website information, business planning, looking at insurance that protects your company, all of the things you need to know. This will be a series running for ten weeks throughout the summer, and all the information is at the tbiz.com website.

Finally, we also want to mention that with this being a national exporting month, we also have a global markets workshop for businesses who are interested in pursuing opportunities in the global market. That is happening next week. All of the registration information is on both the chamber and TBIS social media and the websites as well, or feel free to give us a call. Thank you.

Thank you, Donette. I'll wait till item six. K? Anyone else? Chambers for public comment? K. Moving forward, we'll go to five, communications. Mister Thomas?

No communications.

K. Item six, council reports an item of interest. And if I will start off is we do not have council member Segala with us tonight, but council member Segala is attending a graduation with a family. So we wish him well, and he might be, of course, listening on the on the webinar. So vice mayor Harrell.

Thank you, mister Graham. The sixth attended the Police Memorial Day's event at Vice A Of 7th, The Rotary Prayer Dinner, the twelfth, met with Armando and and councilman Medeiros and Ryan at the dog park to look at the orientation of the pedestal for Bane to be mounted on. And then on thirteenth was the downtown association, and I met with a couple different constituents over some matters and concerns they had.

K. Mister Medeiros? Same as indicated by the vice mayor. I also attended governmental affairs on the eleventh. On the twelfth, I attended the Mid Kuwait GSA meeting, of which I'm a board member, and there was also a meeting.

It's at a Tulare Historical Museum with mister Mondale and council member, The m Green and Company celebrated their seventieth, I believe, anniversary, and I attended that on the thirteenth on other than that, we're fine.

I also attended the Rotary Prayer Fest on the seventh. There are numerous chamber ribbon cuttings and celebrations this last two weeks. On the sixteenth, I attended the California State University of Fresno graduation. And yesterday, the Tulare County Regional Transit Authority meeting. I'd like to be sure that everyone knows at 08:00 on Friday morning at the Veterans Memorial Building, we'll be having the hometown hero celebration. So we'll be adding 12 more banners to Tulare Avenue. So if you can come out for that, it'll be a short but memorable celebration. Alright.

Yes. I had appreciate the invite from the Salvation Army to attend their partner appreciation lunch. Attended the Boys and Girls Club's fundraiser, Comics for Kids, to support their organization, and as others had mentioned, the Rotary Purpose. I did get to attend as being the rep from the council for the Tulare County Association of Governments, and I thought I would share some notes from the Caltrans section section six update. One is Caltrans had shared that they are have their encampment crews up and working throughout the Central Valley.

Tulare County is phase one where their teams go through and assist with cleaning up encampments along the the highway system, bridges, and underpasses. As well, they had shared about their they have working with graffiti drones. So they use drones to go under parts of bridges and other tight areas to to overspray graffiti. I thought that was an interesting report. As well, they are have eight dedicated maintenance crews going throughout our territory to paint crosswalks, fill potholes out on the state local highways that we have that go through our cities and county, as well as they have funding that's released for the federal row rail program.

So they will be coming through our territory, Tulare County, which is funding for safety crossings and grade crossing improvements. As well, they touched on our Tulare six lane project, which the $98,000,000 was approved, and they are under agreements. So that way, the that program is now funded and moving forward. They had a public meeting May 5 at Palo Verde School. The 99 page rehab, they're just an update that they provided, and our community is aware that the freeway will have closures at 99 And Page, and traffic will come up over the freeway and will be on our city streets.

And then AgriCenter ribbon cutting will be the AgriCenter International AgriCenter Way And Overpass. They'll have a ribbon cutting on July 24 for all of us to attend. So very informative meeting of TK. I don't know if that's exactly when it's opening, but they're having a major ribbon cutting that day. If our city staff are also aware of that July 24.

Percent of July

That sounds like it could be close because they've been telling us July maybe slipping into August. So I haven't heard confirmation that that's the actual official opening date or not.

K. Alright. Moving forward, item seven, consent calendar. Counsel, do you have recommendations or action? 7.6, just for clarification. Other than that, I'm fine. If no one else is pulling anything, I'd make a motion to adopt 7.1 through 7.8 except for 7.6. We have a motion and a second for approval of the consent calendar with removal of 7.6. All in favor? Aye.

Opposed? Consent calendar approved. 7.6, mister Medeiros. Yeah. The because that's a state route, 137, I had some questions of Thomas as it related to streetscape, place making, how that overlaps with Caltrans. What's the intent is? I know we're we're entering into a professional services agreement with Zach Urban if this is approved, but if you could clarify under the circumstances.

Certainly, council member. So this work this consulting engagement will include some economic development activities, community outreach, and a lot of planning relative to the roadway, but also back of walk, things that are on private property. It may result in recommendations for land use and that type of thing. But, anything in the roadway, would be coordinated with Caltrans as a part of their project if the consultant comes up with recommendations. And Caltrans, as we kick this off, will be engaged in our process as a stakeholder the entire time.

So they'll be involved?

Yes. But this is not the project that's gonna include the roundabouts and Correct.

It is not. Okay.

My apologies. Meeting with legal counsel. What do you have any comments on what we just discussed? I don't. No. That being the case, I'll make a motion to adopt item 7.6.

Second.

We have a motion and a second for adoption of 7.6. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Four o. Moving forward to item eight, public hearing. Comments related to public hearing items are limited to three minutes per speaker for a maximum of thirty minutes per item unless otherwise extended by council. For those that wish to provide come comment while viewing the council meeting on the webinar, you can press 9 or raise your hand, and the clerk will assist you. For item 8.1, I need to recuse myself, and I will pass this public hearing item for 8.1 over to vice mayor Harrell.

Lexus, are you doing the presentation?

I think you have to leave whenever queues. I have to yeah. Yes. On on the on the consent calendar. Okay. Do you get this done?

Good

evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Norveen Brar, and I serve as a housing and grant specialist with the housing division of the community development department. Division colleagues and I prepared a staff report resolution and final draft of the city's 2026 annual action plan as part of this evening's public hearing and your consideration for approval. As a reminder, an annual action plan is a mandated planning exercise for recipients of community development block grant and home investment partnership program funds. Through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, the housing division typically leads the city's public outreach procurement and analysis efforts central to the preparation of the annual action plan.

Housing division staff has held four public meetings over the past two and a half months reviewing public input and evaluating eight applications for CDBG community development block grant, home investment, and or PLHA funds through RFP number 26844. All proposed projects and activities identified in the annual action plan must correspond to the city's twenty twenty five, twenty twenty nine consult con consolidated plan and satisfy program requirements for CDBG and HOME respectively. Both table two within the staff report and section AP 35 and AP 38 of the 2026 annual action plan document outlines the projects and planned activities utilizing CDBG and our home funds. The presented 2026 annual action plan obligates approximately $1,124,832 in CDBG funds and 7,901 and $77,901 $709,104 and 52¢ in home funds to a range of projects that will address affordable housing, public services, and neighborhood revitalization, those go the goals for our city. If approved as presented, the housing division will submit a final annual annual action plan for 2026 awards agreement and certification forms to HUD for the review and approval before June 1.

This should keep the city on track to implement app applicable CDBG on home activities in by early July. On behalf of the housing division, I appreciate your time and consideration on this item and welcome your questions and following, the public hearing portion. Thank you.

Thank you.

Alexis, did you have any

No. No additional thoughts. Right now, we'll that would be available to

Okay. Alright. Hearing that then, this is a public hearing, so I'll open the public hearing. Is there anyone in chambers that would like to address this? Do we have anybody on the webinar?

Okay.

No one in chambers. Nothing on the webinar. I'll close the public hearing and turn it over to counsel. Any any questions?

I have no questions.

And I have no questions. So Do you have questions? No. So I'd like to make a motion to approve.

I'll go ahead and make a motion. I I move that we approve the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven annual action plan, as stated in, the staff report.

I will second that.

K. We have a motion to second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries three to zero.

We are at item nine, general business, 9.1, committee on aging appointment. And, Melissa, do you wanna start this off?

Sure. Good evening, counsel. This item is brought to you due to a vacancy on the committee on aging. That was due to mister Ralph Cantu, who was recently appointed to the planning commission. He had resigned subsequently on from his duties on the committee on aging. So this is going to be council member Sayers' appointment. I've provided the council with, I believe, three applications of those interested. And so, if council member there is ready to make a recommendation, the rest of the council can confirm, and we can appoint somebody to the committee on aging.

I forgot to bring that name with me. I sent it to you, though.

Sure. With that, is there anyone in chambers that would like to make public comment on item 9.1? K. Do we have anyone on the webinar? K. Alright. I

I believe the name that you provided me was Cecilia Franco.

Was who?

Cecilia Franco.

Yes. K.

That's your endorsed Yes. Recommendation. Okay. What was that? The motion? Is that your motion? Mhmm. I'll second the motion. We have a motion and a second for appointment of Cecilia Franco to the Committee on Aging. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Right. Motion. Appointment confirmed, four o. Mhmm. Item numb 9.2, policy on handling service disruptions during hybrid public meetings. Melissa.

Alright. This item is to adopt the required policy for handling service disruptions, so mainly the technology portion. That that's the type of service disruptions it's talking about during our hybrid public meetings. This comes after the the adoption of s seven zero seven legislation, and so we need to adopt this policy by July 1. It outlines how we announce disruptions, recess for troubleshooting, document actions taken, proceed if service can't be restored, all to stay compliant with s b seven zero seven and ensure fair participation. There's no fiscal impact, and staff recommends approval.

I will go to the for public comment. Does anyone in chambers wish to speak on item 9.2 policy on handling service disruptions during hybrid public meetings in the report as provided by staff? But do we have anyone on the webinar? Alright. Counsel, do you have a recommend questions or recommended action? This this basically just follows the statute and the recommended procedure. Is that correct?

That's correct.

If

there's no other questions, I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution according to the recommendations of our chief deputy city clerk.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a sec a second to adopt the resolution approving the policy on handling service disruptions. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Approved. Four o. Moving forward to nine point three, Tulare mosquito abatement district appointment. Adopt a resolution making appointment to the Tulare mosquito abatement district. Again, Melissa.

It's all me tonight. So this one is just the regular appointment. So I I'm not sure what past practice was, but moving forward, we are aligning the term with the the health and safety code. So you it the terms within the health and safety code, for the mosquito abatement district trustees starts in January. So we're going to make this appointment effective from July 1 through 12/31/2029.

The current, trustee is Craig Smith. He has, he has indicated he is interested in continuing to serve in this capacity. I did provide two other applications of applicants who did, mark that they were interested as well. So whatever your, recommendation is, there's no set appointment process for this. So any of the council members can make can put forward a motion to appoint somebody to this board.

Okay. I'll go to public comment. Does anyone in chambers wish to have public comment on nine point three Tulare mosquito abatement district appointment? K. May correct? Do we have anyone on the webinar? Okay. Moving forward. Counsel, do we have any comments or questions or action? I'll make a motion to to follow to adopt a resolution making the appointment of Craig Smith to the Tulare mosquito abatement district board of directors.

Second.

For the term indicated. Second. We have a motion and a second for the continue appointment of Craig Smith to the Tulare Mosquito Abatement District Board of Directors for the term 07/01/2026 through 12/31/2029. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Appointment confirmed. Four. Alright. Six zero five.

We've got at least four hours of time that we could do nine point five four nine point five. Well, there is I think our chief deputy city clerk failed to recognize when she estimated this certain unbeknown factors that consistent of changing the time on the in what we're dealing with.

I actually didn't even put together the packet. That was my administration analyst, though, and we weren't aware of all those factors. This is great.

So we are on 9.4 fiscal year. If if that unbeknown factor seems is listening that we're saying that in jest. We're we're not serious here. Fiscal year twenty twenty seven preliminary capital improvement program review. Mister Miller.

Thank you, mister mayor, members of council. Hopefully, I don't break the streak here. This is a presentation on the preliminary capital improvement program update for fiscal year twenty twenty seven. I'll be presenting the projects proposed for inclusion in the CIP that require new funding allocations, many of which are carryovers from the prior year's CIP. After running through a comprehensive list of these projects in each of the eight CIP categories, I'll focus on these how these projects specifically, have funding requirements that impact the general fund.

The first CIP category is facilities maintenance. We have five projects listed in this category, the corporation yard master plan and implementation, the business incubator makerspace project, the women's clubhouse renovation and land acquisition, airport runway pavement management, and ADA compliance upgrades for city facilities. Proposed expenditures in the facilities maintenance category total 1.3 just over 1,300,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty seven with a five year budget of 30 just over $30,700,000. The majority of the proposed expenditures are related to future construction phases of the corporation yard master plan and implementation project. I'll note that the women's clubhouse project received sufficient project funding last fiscal year for property acquisition from the Union Pacific Railroad and design costs.

As I mentioned earlier, we'll discuss these projects in greater detail later in the presentation, particularly their impact to the general fund in the fiscal year 2027. The next category is parks and recreation. We have five projects listed in this category, including Cecil Berkeley playground replacement, the DXI irrigation management system replacement, Prosperity Sports Park fertilizer injection system, Cypress Park playground replacement, and Mulcahy Park Splash pad. Only one project is proposed to move forward in fiscal year twenty twenty seven. That's the DXI irrigation management system replacement, which is an ongoing project to upgrade existing equipment.

The proposed five year budget for the parks category is just over $1,000,000, the majority of which would occur in fiscal year twenty twenty eight. Next category is public safety. We have six projects listed in this category, including the new Fire Station 64, new fire apparatus, police and fire dispatch consolidation, license plate reading technology expansion, interview room cameras, and Axon fleet three dash cameras. Proposed expenditures in the public safety category total just under $6,000,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty seven with a five year budget of $24,600,000. The majority of the proposed expenditures are related to future construction of Fire Station 64.

The next category is technology. We have five projects listed in this category, including annual IT equipment maintenance, annual IT equipment replacement, Eden replacement phase two, which is the building permit system, fire training room AV replacement, and finance system replacement phase one continuation. This is working on the utility billing portion of that system. Proposed expenditures in the technology category total 1,150,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty seven, and we have a five year budget of just under 1,800,000. The next category is transportation, our largest one.

We have 26 projects listed in this category, the majority of which are carryover projects from prior CIPs. This is due to transportation projects including multiple phases from preliminary design, environmental review, final design, right of way, and construction. The first 13 of the projects listed should look familiar. We've got our annual projects that fund administration, planning, and studies, street maintenance efforts by city forces, and light items for urgent traffic safety projects that arise throughout the year. There are some significant projects identified for future years beyond fiscal year twenty twenty seven that seek to address the impacts of development in new growth areas.

These include Turner Drive, Foster Drive realignment, Bardsley Avenue widening between Irwin Street and Oakmore Street, Prosperity Avenue widening between Mooney Boulevard and Morrison Street, West Street widening between Tulare Avenue and Prosperity Avenue, and Tulare Drive at Cross Avenue Roundabout. We also have TID Main Canal culverts between Foster Drive and Cross Avenue. Several streets along that stretch are designated collector streets, which never actually crossed the TID Canal and connected to Mooney Boulevard to complete the circulation system needed by the city. We also have Page Avenue and K Street intersection improvements and landscape maintenance district supplemental street maintenance. This is the first year we finally have enough funding in some of those landscape maintenance districts to actually go forth and do some street maintenance work.

As you can see, there are a lot of funding sources that are involved in our transportation CIP projects. Proposed expenditures in the transportation category total $20,300,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty seven with a five year budget of $83,500,000. As mentioned earlier, we'll take a closer look at the general fund categories a little later in the presentation. The next category is surface water. We have five projects listed in this category, including Tulare High School Farm storm drain lift station upgrade, ponding basin rehabilitation and cleaning, storm drain systems, SCADA, and electrical upgrades, and m s four permit compliance.

Proposed expenditures in the surface water category total $921,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty seven with a five year budget of just under 2,400,000. Next category is sewer and wastewater. We have 21 projects listed in this category, all of which are carryover projects from prior CIPs. Proposed expenditures in the wastewater category total $16,260,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty seven with a five year budget of 125 just under 125,000,005 it's a big number. $125,500,000.

The projects are funded by wastewater enterprise funds and equipment replacement funds. So as a result, there are no anticipated impact to the general fund. The last category is water. We have 16 projects listed in this category, all of which are carryover projects from prior CIPs. Proposed expenditures in the water category total 6.5 or just under 6,600,000 in fiscal year twenty twenty seven with a five year budget of just under 81,000,000.

The projects are funded by water enterprise funds, development impact fees, and grant funding. And as a result, there is no anticipated impact of the general fund. So next, we'll be taking an overall look at the CIP budget first as a five year outlook and then focusing in on fiscal year twenty seven impacts to the general fund. So here's a look at the proposed overall five year CIP budget. A particular note a particular note for tonight's discussion are the proposed budgets for fund 100, which is general fund, and fund 400, which is the general CIP fund.

The total of all funding sources for fiscal year twenty seven is just under $58,000,000, which is slightly higher than the final $51,500,000 of funding that was in the current fiscal year. We're projecting that the funding requirements will increase substantially in fiscal year twenty eight and fiscal year twenty nine due to some major projects that will commence in those years, including the corporation yard master plan construction, new Fire Station 64 construction, domestic wastewater treatment plant expansion, and construction of two water well sites with storage tanks and treatment facilities. In this slide, we drill in on those projects impacting fund 100 and fund 400. As you can see, the proposed CIP calls for $5,094,347.16 from fund 100 in fiscal year twenty seven. $550,000 will come from fund 400, which is funding that has previously been appropriated in the prior CIP.

A couple of things to note. $3,325,000.97 is shown for project e n zero one zero one, which is the Tesori Bella Oaks improvements. Included in that figure is the remainder of the funds received from the Del Lago settlement agreement. The city could also use available LTF streets and roads funding to reimburse or backfill the balance of funds. Measure r funding could also be used as the city receives reimbursement from property owners for the advancement of measure r funds for the International Agri Center Way extension project.

February of the $350,000 shown for project s t zero zero zero six, the annual transportation pavement management project, is the share of measure I designated for street maintenance. The remainder of slides provide additional detail of the projects listed in this table. In the interest of time, we'll skip those unless council has a specific question regarding one of the projects listed. Staff is seeking council's direction regarding the preliminary CIP projects contained therein or proposed funding. We'll, of course, try to incorporate any feedback received into the final draft of the fiscal year twenty seven CIP, which will be brought back to you for adoption along with the city budget.

So I'll open it up for any questions.

I have couple questions.

I do. Michael, could you go back to the first transportation slide? On '98 and '99. I see on 98 various streets Northeast Of Dayton and Tulare has got zeroed. And then various streets Northeast Of Camby Street and Tulare Avenue, it has an amount. Those are all together right there.

I included the 90 I'm sorry. Which one? The various streets Northeast Of Dayton and Tulare on this just to let you know that it is still a project in the CIP, but all of the funding was programmed last year. So there's actually no funding requirements for that project in 2627 moving forward.

Okay. That'll make the folks over there happy.

Yeah. By the way, we, we have had the, bid opening for that, and we'll be bringing a construction contract and related contracts to you for approval, hopefully, this next council meeting.

Thank you, Michael.

Perhaps if it's just timing to segue, one one of the questions I had. So the Northeast Of Camby Street, Tulare Avenue looking at 9.9, that seems that am I right that that's escalated? Did it it used to be a lower price, and now it's at 9.9. I'm just curious if that has increased.

It probably has increased. We do each year, we do the CIP. Now we try to add the CPI to our estimated cost just to reflect that the costs go up every year so that we can come back to you constantly with underfunded projects. The good news is, the the prior project, the Dayton and Tulare project, bid bids actually came in lower than anticipated. So we're in a good position there, and, hopefully, that's the case with this next project too.

On the Tesori Bella Oaks improvements, State the sources of funding. You said we could, and I thought we've already made moves to adopt from those sources in previous meetings.

Yes. We we have had council direct for certain fiscal years, the LTF and street funds be designated for that purpose. We probably will have additional in the coming fiscal years that could also be the same.

Good. So we're moving forward

on that. Correct.

I think to kind of ride on the coattails with that. I know we have that here. But, Thomas, I think in our conversation and others, though, as we're looking really that that might net out to really and the number I had was about 1,900,000. I'm not asking that sure. But from the sources, if we have 3.3, but if it all comes together, probably really about 1.9.

I know I'm doing a projection, but if that was kind of accurate of potential totals. The reason why I note is because I know originally as we walked through this, 6,000,000 down to $4.3.3. We have some other funding, and that's what I understood is possibly comes out at at that total. So I just wanted to say as well as I I think as we have worked through that strategy and plan for that project and the enormity of it to net it to come out to roughly that area, that's, it's going well.

I see Michael nodding. I concur.

Yes. That's correct. K. So I

Get some update on the Western Prosperity, signal where we are on that.

The of course, the project has been awarded. Yeah. The contractor is in the process of gathering materials. Edison is still finishing up, and some of the utilities are finishing up their relocations, but should be starting actual construction that people see here pretty soon. Yes.

And you might update, Michael, the meeting that Ted Smalley called as as it relates to International Aggress Center Way that several of us attended and what steps are gonna be taken so that the rest of the council's aware of what I know.

Yes. We did at the at the request of various parties interested in how the project schedule was going. We met with, Ted Smalli of TCAG and some TCAG staff as well as councilman Medeiros, just to kinda provide an update, and we will be bringing an update to council at the next council meeting with an official project schedule moving forward to try to give some certainty to parties of what the schedule looks like. The environmental process is going very well. Our environmental consultant is making great strides in getting all the studies submitted to Caltrans back and forth, incorporating their comments.

Our TCAG representative, Gail Miller, who, of course, has a background at Caltrans in their environmental division, seems very pleased as well, thinks they're doing an excellent job in moving forward expeditiously. So, hopefully, like, say, next council meeting, we'll be bringing an item to you that kind of firms up the schedule, we can provide that to all the stakeholders so they have a little more certainty of how the project's going.

If that's approved the schedule is approved by council, I'm then going to take it to the next international AgriCenter board meeting so that they're fully aware of what's gonna take place. We'll also provide that to Lynn Dredge who's the representative for the Faria family so they'll know when it is most appropriate to pull out the trees that are in the right of way for for the road itself. It'll put everybody on the same page as to how we're moving forward. And Thomas was at the meeting too. We don't wanna leave Thomas out.

So okay. Any other comments, questions from from council members? I'll also look go for public comment. 9.4, the fiscal year twenty twenty seven preliminary capital improvement program as presented. Do we have anyone in chambers who'd like to make comments on this? Kirk, do we have anyone on on the webinar? Alright. Moving forward to 09/2005, fiscal year twenty twenty seven preliminary budget review. I think we're supposed to give direction to staff. Okay.

So going back to 9.4, out of questions, comments, any additional or or change in direction on the CIP project? I'd I'd recommend that we have a consensus to move forward and that that be the direction of discounts. K. Alright. So, mister Thomas, you have consensus from the council of moving forward with our CIP schedule.

Yep. Yep. Thank you.

And then I'll intro the next one before handing it off to Mark. K. And so I I know this is the same materials that you saw that we continued from our, last meeting in April. And as you recall, then we were estimating a general fund operating deficit of around 800,000. At that time, staff identified we're still working through all the revenues and expenses.

And as you see, in your staff report, we're now to an operating deficit of about 400,000. And assuming council doesn't have any additional requested expenditures, staff are confident we'll have a balanced budget before we get to adoption, next month. Wanted to highlight, city's general fund reserve policy is to retain 16 to 32% of our balances in reserve. And right now, we're at 25% reserves, plus an additional 8,000,000 in unassigned fund balance. For the purposes of this discussion, staffs assumed use of approximately 5,000,000 of the unassigned fund balance to complete the proposed CIP projects, which would reduce that unassigned fund balance to 3,000,000.

The use of these, funds on one time capital projects is acceptable. Alternatively, staff, would like counsel to consider using approximately 3,000,000 in measure r funds to complete eligible CIP projects and would only require use of 2,000,000 in the unassigned fund balance leaving 6,000,000 for future use. And we'll get through that now.

Yeah. And thank you, mayor. Oops. Sorry. Yep. There we go. Sorry about that. So, yes, thank you, mister Gaffrey, and thank you, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. It's a pleasure for our budget manager, Jacob Del Sid, and I to present the second preliminary budget to you this evening. Before we begin, I'd like to thank Jacob for his great work in putting together the information before you.

Oops. Good on my thing. K. Total fiscal year twenty twenty seven revenues are currently estimated to be $194,600,000. Preliminary operating appropriations are $199,880,000. Typically, we don't show transfers. There are transfers in and out from most of the funds, but typically, we do not show those because for the budget as a whole, transfers in and out should wash, which they do, except for a small $38,500 general fund transfer to the successor agency, the latter of which which is budget is not adopted with the city's budget, so there was not an offsetting transfer in for it.

I think we deal with this every year, Mark. I I always have trouble with this, and I'm I'm not an accountant. I took an accounting class one time. But when I when I look at projected revenues and estimated expenditures, that to me initially indicates whether we've got a balanced budget or we don't have a balanced budget. And I think we go through this exercise every year because we have to then explain that to people who ask that question. I mean, if you look at this right off the bat, you're saying, wow. We're 5,500,000 under, and that doesn't look good.

Yes. Well, to to clarify, I should clarify in two points. First of all, when we say balanced budget, it's it's really a term of art, meaning it's meaning that financing sources equal or exceed financing uses. So so so if you use fund balance, you could still have a balanced budget as long as because that's a finance use as as is revenues, you can still have a balanced budget. With respect to the budget of as a whole and you are correct. I do recall this conversation before. So next, note to self, Jacob. Next next time, let's put a footnote in here. This is all funds. So you have some that have a deficit, some that have some that have a surplus.

So in in this case, which you'll see shortly, the general fund, which is about, about a third, not about a third, about a quarter of the well, it's about 70,000,000 and change. We'll have the 400,000 use of fund balance that the that the assistant city manager mentioned. So, again, this is the collection of all funds. And when we're talking about balancing the budget and revenues equaling expenditures, we're primarily talking about the general fund, which is the preliminary operating fund of the city. Okay. And you're forgiven. I'm not an attorney, there's a lot of stuff that I don't understand either. K. Right. Yep.

So looking at looking at the the bottom line numbers, the total revenues preliminary revenues for the general fund are 75,500,000 compared to 73,300,000 for the current fiscal year, an increase of $2,200,000. When you add small, small transfers in, make an immaterial change to those to those numbers.

So we presented this slide for the council at our April 7 meeting. And since then, we've made one significant change from the first preliminary version, and that is increasing utility users' tax revenue by about $600,000. The reason for this increase is based on fiscal year twenty five actuals that are still unaudited. But during our first preliminary budget meeting, I had projected about $11,100,000 in utility into utility users' tax revenue. However, during these past couple weeks of analysis, I found that in fiscal year twenty five, the city actually ended the year with roughly $11,400,000 in UUT revenue, so which was already $300,000 higher than what I had initially projected.

So based on these actuals, I went ahead and applied a 3%, increase for fiscal year twenty seven, and now we're projecting that $11,700,000 in UUT revenue. I'd like to add, though, that that 11.7 is still roughly $850,000 lower than our consultants' projections. So I actually reached out to him last week, and so I'm waiting to see if I can get some updated projections because if he has updated projections that are higher, I'd like to incorporate those, you know, basic looking at all the analysis and making sure they they look in line to include. So

Does that include the anticipated utility users tax from streaming?

No. That doesn't. That doesn't even include the streaming.

And and if that comes, do you expect that to come in the next fiscal year?

We would anticipate to start, assessing it in the next fiscal year. We would anticipate that. Okay. So aside from the UT revenue projection update, total revenues and transfers in our projected to be a total of $75,600,000, which is, again, a roughly $2,200,000 increase for fiscal year twenty six.

Again, looking at the bottom line numbers, total expenditures, preliminary, appropriations are about $73,000,000, compared to 69,800,000 for the current fiscal year, an increase of $3,200,000. Adding total transfers out of 8,100,000 for the current year brings the total expenditures and transfers out for fiscal year twenty seven preliminary total to $81,100,000 compared to a combined $74,800,000, a $6,300,000 increase. And just to clarify one more time, mister Medeiros, when I because I didn't go into all the detail because I'm trying to be concise. We we talk financing sources and uses. Essentially, financing sources are fund balance and revenues, and financing uses are expenditures and transfers out.

So when we say financing sources and uses, that's what we're talking about.

Salaries and benefits are projected to be about $43,700,000, which is currently a roughly a $150,000 increase year over year. Between our first preliminary budget review and now, this category is where a majority of the work took place. If you recall, let the council know that we had gone live with the new salaries and benefits projection module in our new financial system. And after preliminary one, we discovered there were a handful of employees being allocated incorrectly in our new system. So I'd like to thank, HR and all department heads and their staff by assisting and cleaning up these allocations, so they reflect accurately.

Maintenance and operation expenditures are projected to be $16,700,000, is roughly a $3,200,000 increase year over year. Internal service charges and allocated costs are projected to be $11,300,000, which is roughly a $110,000 decrease year over year. Capital outlay has not changed since our first preliminary version of this budget and is projected to be $708,000, which is roughly $52,000 decrease year over year. And debt service is projected to be roughly $536,000, which is a $45,000 increase year over year, which brings our expenditure total to roughly $73,000,000. Like Mark mentioned, transfers out are now projected to be about $8,100,000, and this total now includes the fiscal year twenty seven CIP totals, which is roughly a $3,100,000 increase year over year.

So in summary, again, preliminary fiscal year twenty twenty seven revenues are $75,500,000, transfers in $58,000, expenditures $73,000,000, and transfers out $8,100,000, which includes $5,100,000 dollars in transfers for capital improvement projects, so leaving a preliminary use of fund balance of $5,500,000. And, again, if you if you remove that $5,100,000, you have an operating deficit of $400,000 that the assistant city manager, referenced.

So we're gonna first, we'll talk about significant changes in revenues. There's only one. I kind of already touched on it, but I'll briefly touch on it again. It's just the utility users' tax revenue increase of $600,000, and that was based on fiscal year twenty five actuals that are that would that that's the basis of why I increased that revenue, for this preliminary version of the budget. Was the only change to revenues for this second version of the budget.

And and another note on that, if you're wondering why we just don't take what the consultant gave us and ran with it, when we requested an update last year, you may recall, I believe it was at the mid year when we said we were, there needed to be an adjustment, so we reached out to the consultant, to the the UUT consultants. And they revised their estimate, and it just based upon where we were, it just seemed really, really high, so we actually dialed that back. Even dialing back from their estimate, we still are a little bit short or look like we're gonna be a little bit short this year. So we're we're erring on the side of caution. We always have to be conservative with revenues. I've always operated under the school of thought. I'd rather be looking at revenues than for them, which is why we do that.

Next, we'll talk about significant changes in expenditures. So first, we increased the appropriation total for the homeless shelter operations for fiscal '27 dollars by about $1,200,000. This now brings the fiscal year twenty seven homeless shelter operations total to about $3,200,000 in total, which is the amount the city council saw and approved at the February 17 meeting. The total cost was not included in preliminary one because staff was still evaluating potential cost reductions. But, however, this review is still underway.

So for budgeting purposes, we are now assuming the full 3.2 that are previously approved by city council, and any potential savings will be incorporated at the final bot into the final budget. The second significant change I briefly discussed is recalculating salaries. Like I mentioned, after the first review, we found a lot of our employees were allocated incorrectly into different into incorrect funds. And so once we did that recalculation, the net effect of all that was about $941,000. A lot of them, for example, all of our facilities maintenance staff was all general fund, but they're actually code they're supposed to be allocated to the facilities maintenance fund.

Those employees alone were about half $1,000,000, so that's just for them. It's like myself. Ironically enough, I was coded incorrectly as well, so there's a lot of cleanup that needed to take place within salaries and benefits. Next, the general fund has historically been overfunding the employee welfare fund on an annual basis. Therefore, staff recommended that we reduce the annual contribution by about 375 doll $375,000, which will still allow this fund to cover all of its anticipated expenses.

And lastly, we've increased the vacancy factor for all vacant positions from 33% to 50%, which helped reduce the use of fund balance by about $374,000. These were all the significant changes that occurred between preliminary one and tonight's preliminary two version of the budget. Per request, I have compiled updated Measure I revenue and expenditure totals since inception. In the first column, you'll see that Measure I expenditures have exceeded Measure I revenues from inception, which was, I believe, in 2006 through 06/30/2025. However, the 2025 actuals that I have incorporated are still unaudited by about $868,000.

For the current year projections, revenues are expected to exceed Measure I spending, however, by roughly $268,000, bringing the projected balance down to about $600,000. And if we include fiscal year twenty seven preliminary totals, Measure expenditures are expected to exceed Measure I revenues by about $444,000, which would result in a Measure I expenditures exceeding Measure I revenues since inception by roughly $944,000. As the council's aware, Measure I funds divisions within the police department, the fire department, code enforcement, and streets projects.

The, the next two slides, simply reflect the preliminary budgets by department and and grouped category salaries and benefits and nonsalaries. Just to highlight, as as you're as I'm sure you're aware, public safety are the largest departments with the police department representing approximately $27,300,000 of budget. Fire being second at 12,400,000, which is which is not unusual in a in a city in a in a full service city. After that is is community services at $7,600,000. Of course, these are just general fund expenditures.

Public works would be right up there and, I believe, even exceed at least community services if you add it in water and wastewater. K? And then, again, you could see the salaries and benefits total of $43,700,000 and total budget of approximately $73,000,000.

So this slide has remained unchanged. This slide just shows the current, council member appropriations that are currently included in this version of the budget. These remain unchanged. Travel and event expenses per council member, $5,000. Community improvements per council member, $5,000 as well. And we also have the community arts for $50,000 that was requested last year at the end of the budget process. Personnel reclassifications, we'll we'll we'll go over next. These have remained unchanged as well. These are the only things that we're bringing forward in regards to personnel. So these reclassifications total about right under a $100,000 for fiscal year twenty seven.

These have remained unchanged from the first version of the budget. So these next two slides show the list of general fund projects that mister Miller previously presented to the council. They include the preliminary general fund projects along with their fiscal year twenty seven costs for your reference. Please note that the total shown represent only the general fund contribution to each project, and any project that's currently highlighted in yellow indicates that it is funded by multiple sources. Again, these are simply here for your review since we will since we will be showing you the potential impacts of these projects should they move forward.

If you have any questions, you can ask now, and myself or Michael can answer if you have any specific questions, again, regarding the CIP projects. And, again, potentially, point $2,000,000 could be, could be used from through MeasureR funds to to fund the Tesori Bella Oaks project, and we have a little footnote there for you just as a reminder.

Do any members of council need additional time to review the slides here? K? With that but nothing, I will move forward. Okay. So as if you hadn't heard it enough, fiscal year twenty twenty seven preliminary revenues are $75,500,000, transfers in 58,000, expenditures 73,000,000, operating transfers $3,000,000 for an op for an operating use of fund balance of about $410,000. Adding in $5,100,000, dollars for transfers for CIP projects, brings the total use of fund balance to $5,500,000.

And, again, if if we did oh, sorry. And, again, if we did remove that 3,200,000, it would be roughly about the 3.2 for the measure our funding for the Tesoriero project, it would be about roughly $2,400,000, which would also include the 410 operating use of fund balance as well.

So Wait. Sorry?

Did I go too far?

We've said several I I'm gonna push back a little bit. We've said several times this council has over months and months and already years that we're not gonna do that. So why are you talking about that?

What doing what?

Remove what you just indicated about removing funds for the Bella Oaks to story project.

No. We would we would remove, so in the 5.5 that you're seeing, that's that's all general fund money that that we're assuming we would take if we will remove $3,200,000 of that funding because that would come from measure

r, not the general fund.

So it's just shuffling of the money?

Correct. Yeah. Just a different funding source. Correct.

And as you had mentioned earlier, councilman, there could be opportunities for additional LTF streets and roads money to that would then decrease what we would use to measure our

Got it.

Finance.

K. Spent a lot of time supporting Prosperity and West, and now that that's finally out to bid, before I ride off into the sunset, I wanna see this eight year project completed. No. Not eight year. Probably fifteen year project.

So as as the council knows, the municipality easy for you to say. The municipal utility utilities budget is under the purview of the city of Tulare board of public utilities. We will be taking their budgets to them for adoption on Thursday, so this information is provided for council information only. As you can see, we have the the budgets for the three utilities by by fund and category by and spending category. The total for solid waste and street sweeping for preliminarily for fiscal year twenty seven is $14,400,000, for wastewater, $29,500,000, and for the water fund, $13,800,000.

Taking estimated revenues, expenditures, and transfers out in the solid waste and street sweeping fund, we're expected to see a surplus of roughly $625,000. For the wastewater fund, we're estimating a surplus of, again, about 7 $625,000. And for water, we are estimating this, use of fund balance currently of $2.82900000 dollars. Okay. And like Mark mentioned, we are taking the proposed budget to the BPU for their review, and, hopefully, their, approval is upcoming Thursday.

So the next time we're back to present to council, the this slide will be updated with all approved totals if the BPU does in fact approve those budgets on Thursday. So for our next steps, the primary focus over the next few weeks will be to work on final adjustments and refinements, not only in working to balance the general fund operating budget, but to also finalize all budgets for all other city funds. Some key dates that we have coming up, like I mentioned on Thursday, that we are taking the fiscal year twenty seven, proposed budget to the BPU on Thursday, and, hopefully, they, give us direction and approval for that budget. On June 2, we are we're hoping to bring back the proposed fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget for your review and, hopefully, your approval as well. And, alternatively, if we need to push that approval or that adoption date back, we do have a fallback date of, June 16 for an an alternate budget adoption date if need be.

And you may ignore June 16. We're adopting on the second. In fact, Thomas has suggested putting it on a con putting it on consent, so I think we're good to go there. And with that, we'll take councils and direction, including whether or not you want us to put it on consent for the next calendar.

If if you can show it balanced, you can have it on June 2. If not, you're looking at the sixteenth.

Yeah. We're we're we're confident we'll get there.

Okay.

And and council, as always, staff are available. Email, set up a meeting if you'd like us to walk through it. You have, the line item in detail as well as requested, and then we're available at any time between now and the second.

K. I had I had submitted an email with some questions to staff, and I think coming back is but that also allows where those questions could come back for June 2 at that time. Okay? One of the items in our reservations of funds that was mentioned about the 50,000 for the arts, but also understand the previously, this was on our list too, the Inyo Avenue corridor for the 150. Is that

Yeah. The the Inyo Avenue corridor was programmed in this year's operating budget.

Within the operating budget? Okay. K. And, also, I think perhaps just a statement or an overview is the way I understand this or the way I approach this as well is that it's the operating component And when it takes the breakout that the staff gave of the 75,600,000 revenues, 73,000,000 in expenditures, which is an itemized detail in the packet provided, operating actual operations, 2,600,000 plus or minus to the report. So operating the city, we are above the balance for operating.

And I think that's important because the second part is what was described as CIP. So if you're gonna allocate some other funds, it's like going to your net assets and saying, okay. Now we're gonna allocate these potential 5.1, which was set a general fund to go towards projects. Now with that is projects, and then there's operating. So a business does that.

Corporations do that as well. You're gonna make some investment or expenses where that doesn't infringe of how we're operating and making those and making those capital improvements. Now what I also understand, though, and I think the very little difference here is as we get into midyear or if some of the income projections don't happen, we can also adjust some of the CIP schedule. We can adjust those expenditures. So we aren't going to the general fund as much or we aren't in a deficit.

So that's another part that I like that approach is we haven't expended all of this yet. That's the schedule, and it allows us to make adjustments with that. K. I just I do wanna say is as I went through this, thank you for the absolute detail. Councilman Segala had asked for a GL component, which Mark provided to council members. So I went and reviewed that and asked some questions. But and I'll perhaps to share with council just the questions, a few that I had was, I was curious, one, was what our total purse contribution was, and then what is our unfunded liability, for our purse? What what are those total?

So I have UAL right here. So UAL, unfunded liability, citywide is about $7,700,000. That's all funds.

That's all.

Just an unfunded liability.

And that is that was one of my questions. That is the repress that's in here. That's the UAL?

That's the UAL. Got it. And they're they're both separated. So one is just for the PERS regular and the normal cost, and then one is one has its own for the UAL cost.

K. Thank you. And, alright. Thank you for answering that. There was a series of other questions. It was mainly just some understanding of funds, but we can come back June 2 with that. Okay. I have no other issues or comments. K? That's my my take on it.

Awesome. Thank you so much for your time.

Yeah. And thank you, staff. And, also, what I'll do is I'll go to the public as well on this item, 09/2027 preliminary budget review. Is there anyone in chambers that has public comment on this? K. Do we have anyone on the webinar? Alright. Thank you. Thank you, mister Roberts, staff. K.

Item 10, future agenda items. We didn't have any changes, and what I understand then is it will come back on June on June 2. Of course, I think at that time then too is, like I said, there was some like the PERS, the pension liabilities, there were some questions of that of information sharing. K. 10.1, future agenda items, board member appointment process, council member Maderos.

I'll give the history on this. When we had I I think the appointment for the planning commission, there was confusion on my part, and I'll fall on the sword as to exactly how that would proceed. And I I was caught off guard, and I I came to the conclusion and discussing the matter with our city manager that perhaps we should look at what other cities do from the standpoint of an appointment so that council is aware of what's gonna take place instead of suddenly having to make a split decision. That way, there's not mistakes that are made, and I'm not talking about a mistake of other people. At that time, I think had I had the opportunity to make further reflection and understood what was gonna happen, I wouldn't have made a mistake at that particular council meeting as opposed to how I personally felt.

I should I felt afterwards that it it was my obligation to recognize the procedure that we had. So in discussing that with mister Mondale, he asked our chief deputy city clerk to come in and do some research, and she developed what you see before you. I didn't develop that. She did. So thank her for that. And and, basically, I thought it would be useful to put that on the agenda for review at a future meeting. Is that accurate, Melissa? Including the part about you doing a great job?

Alright.

Especially that.

Okay. Good. Blattery will get you everywhere. Right now? K. I think do we have a consensus? I I endorse as well. Yes. Good. I'm informed with that. K. We are at item 11, staff updates. Evening. This evening? I'm not sure. Alright. That's not your problem. Alright. Good evening, Trish. You just

Good evening. As you did the proclamation for National Public Works Week, I would like to remind council and the executive staff that we have our public works taco lunch that we do on Thursday for our employees that we would love to see all of you there, in attendance. Our it's our same taco guy that we use every year, so it's the fabulous tacos that we all love. So we would love to see you all there. Thursday, 11:30.

I pass on my appreciation. I unfortunately won't be able to make it this year with that.

So I will let staff know. Thank you, Mayor.

Nothing additional.

Nothing additional. I don't have anything.

Nothing here.

Nothing to report.

No comment as well. Nothing to report.

That's a nightmare.

Thomas, you have the

last word.

Easy night.

K. Alright. Did you skip, Mario, or did No. I looked

at him.

He said nothing. I looked down. I'm sorry. Alright. He's he just shook his head. He didn't say anything. So move forward to item 12, recess to closed session to discuss the following. Conference labor negotiations per government code five four nine five seven point six, conference with legal counsel per government code five four nine five six point nine d two, and conference with legal counsel existing litigation, government code five four nine five six point nine d one. Counsel, anything to add to that? No.

Okay. We will now recess to closed session. We're convening as the Tulare City Council, meaning with that, we have nothing to report from closed session. Anything additional needs to be said, council? No?

Alright. And with that, we will adjourn as the Tulare City Council. So I